Enchanting Chocolate

Chocolate: Food of the Gods

January 11th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Imagine a world without chocolate - what a depressing thought!
Chocolate lovers like myself take the presence and availability of chocolate for granted but how long has this delicious confectionary been around and where did it originate?
Surprisingly, it appears to have originated in the Amazon thousands of years ago. The Mayans were the original discoverers. From there, its popularity spread throughout the Americas, including Mexico and the Aztec Empire.

The Aztecs actually believed that the Cacao plant, source of the Cacao beans from which chocolate is derived, was created by their feathered-serpent god Quetzlcoatl.

To them Cacao beans were literally the food of the gods. Cacao beans were so highly prized, that at one time they were used as a form of currency.

When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Americas, they too were introduced to the delights of chocolate. When they returned to Spain from the New World in the 16th century, they introduced chocolate to the Western world, who have been smitten ever since.

It is actually possible to find various recipes which are modern interpretations of the ancient beverage favored by the Aztec and Maya. If you do a Google search for chocolatl recipes, you should be able to find several, either original or creative interpretations.
Haagen Dazs, for example, have a special Mayan Chocolate version out,

Chocolate Today

Chocolate in its modern form really took off in North America in the 20th century. Before this chocolate was very expensive and very much a luxury item, only really available to the very wealthy.

Milton S. Hershey changed this is in the US by adapting the Swiss milk chocolate-making process in 1900 to produce more affordable chocolate to the masses.His famous Hershey bars brought chocolate to the masses and the people in the United States joined in the chocolate-craze.

Milk chocolate is very popular in the United States today, but the dark variety is steadily gaining popularity. This is partly because dark chocolate is supposed to appeal to the more sophisticated of us, but also due to current health reports. These studies indicate that chocolate is GOOD for you. Cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate, is a rich supply of antioxidants which mop up harmful cancer-causing molecules in the blood. The darker the chocolate, the more anti-oxidants it has. Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will taste better - the higher the cacao percentage, the more bitter (and possibly less palatable) it will be.
At least when we tuck into that bar of chocolate we can tell ourselves that we are increasing our intake of antioxidants!

It is all for the cause of good health ( as well as tasting delicious)

Get Social, Bookmark Us!!:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.