Choco-loco!

Filed in archive Morsels of Info on January 24, 2006

Oh you bet that I'm awake! I took a cup of the hot beverage and up and about I still am even after a long and tiring day. I haven't made my own chocolate from scratch for years and I underestimated its effects. Unlike coffee though, it gives a much better sense of well-being, not nervous energy. No wonder chocolate is perhaps the only food that inspires so much romance universally.

It is ironic though how little is actually known about it. In this post, we'll know a few things about where it comes from before we look at all those wonderful chocolate recipes in the next few days.

Chocolate comes from the seeds or beans of pods that grow on the cacao tree - the Theobroma cacao. It is native to the Amazon Basin and is believed to have been domesticated 4,000 years ago. From ancient times, the seeds were roasted - like those in the picture - and made into a beverage served to kings, soldiers and special guests.

The Spanish conquest brought the chocolate to Europe where it was sweetened and made into confections. The chocolates we know now, however, are made mostly from sugar and other additives. Anything that is below 60% chocolate is not considered chocolate but just candy.

Eating or drinking a strong chocolate mixture makes us feel better. The reason for the sense of well-being chocolate is the active ingredient theobromine. It is quite a strong stimulant which has given chocolate its reputation as an aphrodisiac. Oh no wonder people having been singing praises to the fantastic concoction!

For a taste of how choco-loco we can become, visit poco-cocoa, the chocolate covered blog!