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Just some fun info about CHOCOLATE!

Yes those candy bars sure taste good, but there’s a lot you probably didn’t know about chocolate!  Do you want to find out? Well, here goes!

1. We’ve heard of rice and pasta, but chocolate as a staple? Yes, ask the South Mexico Olmec tribe back in 1000 B.C. They ate chocolate all the time! Strange, but true!

2. Talk about sweet ceremonies! The Maya drank liquid chocolate during weddings, engagements, baptisms and even funerals! Whoever thought there was something ceremonial about chocolate!

3. Some chocolates may cost you but did you know that Cacao or chocolates beans were used as currency by Aztec and Maya tribes? If we had that today we would be eating out of our wallets!

4. So who thought of solidifying chocolate? Thank Mexican nuns from the 1700’s as they created and exported the first chocolate product as a fund raiser for their convent.

5. Here’s another fact. Not just 10 or 50 but chocolate remarkably has over 500 flavors in it! No wonder it tastes so good. Vanilla and strawberry don’t even come close to this figure.

6. Heard of Mexican Emperor Montezuma? He drank liquid chocolate before getting busy in his harem. Since chocolate make you feel good, it is considered an aphrodisiac.

7. Those gory scenes in Alfred Hitchcock's ‘Psycho’, was all chocolate syrup! Although the scene finishes in about 45 seconds, it took 7 days to get that shot done perfectly! Now that’s a sticky plot!

8. Chocolate was re-born in 1879 when Daniel Peter and Henre Nestle introduced milk chocolate to the world. In the same year Rudolphe Lindt introduced the conching process which makes chocolate smooth and soft.

9. Napoleon was great in many ways. Did you know he took chocolate along with him during his military campaigns. Now that was a clever move as chocolate gives you added energy and restores carbohydrates.

10. For all those of you out there dreaming about those chocolate bars, dream away! You can’t blame chocolate for raising your blood cholesterol. Now that’s a fact so eat!

Chocolate has changed the way we eat, romance and live. But don’t go overboard as too much of a good thing can be bad!

We will feature a theme or product each month, starting in February 2008.  Check back often for new products and ideas!


 February 2008 - featuring

CHOCOLATE
(buy games, food, fondue sets, etc.)

the page will be updated with PRODUCTS FOR SALE soon

RECIPE
Easy Mexican Hot Chocolate
by Donna Monday
food-n-beverage.com

3 tablespoons instant hot chocolate mix
1 tablespoon chocolate syrup
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch chili powder
¼ cup milk
¾ cup boiling water

Directions
In a large mug, mix the hot chocolate mix, chocolate syrup, cinnamon, and chili powder. Pour in the milk. Add the boiling water and stir.

Makes 2 servings
 

 

MORE INFO ABOUT CHOCOLATE ...

Chocolate as Medicine:

According to the article From Aphrodisiac to Health Food: A Cultural History of Chocolate, by Louis E. Grivetti:

From the 16th through early 19th century, numerous European travel accounts and medical texts documented the presumed merits and medicinal value of chocolate. . . Presented here is a brief “taste” of these rich chocolate-related passages from selected historical monographs. On inspection, these samples reveal that chocolate products were used to treat a myriad of human disorders:

Francisco Hernández (1577) wrote that pure cacao paste prepared as a beverage treated fever and liver disease. He also mentioned that toasted, ground cacao beans mixed with resin were effective against dysentery and that chocolate beverages were commonly prescribed to thin patients in order for them to gain “flesh.”

Agustin Farfan (1592) recorded that chili peppers, rhubarb, and vanilla were used by the Mexica as purgatives and that chocolate beverages served hot doubled as powerful laxatives.

José de Acosta (1604) wrote that chili was sometimes added to chocolate beverages and that eating chocolate paste was good for stomach disorders.

Santiago de Valverde Turices (1624) concluded that chocolate drunk in great quantities was beneficial for treatment of chest ailments, but if drunk in small quantities was a satisfactory medicine for stomach disorders.

Colmenero de Ledesma (1631) reported that cacao preserved consumers’ health, made them corpulent, improved their complexions, and made their dispositions more agreeable. He wrote that drinking chocolate incited love-making, led to conception in women, and facilitated delivery. He also claimed that chocolate aided digestion and cured tuberculosis.

Henry Stubbe (1662) wrote that consumers should drink chocolate beverages once or twice each day to relieve tiredness caused by strenuous business activities. He reported that ingesting cacao oil was an effective treatment for the Fire of St. Anthony (i.e., ergot poisoning). Stubbe also described chocolate-based concoctions mixed with Jamaica pepper used to treat menstrual disorders, and other chocolate preparations blended with vanilla to strengthen the heart and to promote digestion.

 

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Petersburg VA 23803
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