[Anni]

I think that you hit the nail on the head for a good reason for chocolate in Middle-earth. The island of Numenor was created specifically, so who knows what exotic plant life was also created there? There's a lot that Tolkien didn't say about his world and therefore if fanfiction writers want to expand it and add, I can't see why there would be a difficulty.

Pipeweed as an hallucinogenic? I can see that too, the hobbits, Gandalf and Aragorn were certainly all quite addicted to it. There have been quite a few stories floating around which inferred something similar. Tolkien loved his pipe, and who knows what stuff they smoked in the little clubs he created. I'd be willing to bet that they experimented more than a bit.

[Eyborg]

He he... yes, I tend to think of the hobbitses as pot-smoking, beer-drinking hippies... and the hobbit lasses as chocolate addicts!

[Elvenesse]

Thank you to everyone for this discussion, it inspired me to write a short 'Chocolate Comes to Gondor' fic as a present for a friend.

It's unbeta'd, but I hope that there aren't too many mistakes.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/unnumberedtears/5769.html

[Eyborg]

Very nice chocolate story! I liked it!
(Yes, I finally read it today - being busy, sick and all).