About Chocolate and Chocolates

What is chocolate exactly? Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which means, 'food of the Gods,' and I think those of us who love chocolate can quite see the connection. After that the process of making chocolate is a long and complex one.

Chocolate is made by fermenting cocoa beans to remove any bitterness and then drying and roasting them to expose what is called 'the nib'. Bean nibs are blended to obtain particular flavors and then they are ground up to form a paste. Other ingredients are then added to the paste, or cocoa mass such as sugar, butter and various flavorings which are blended thogether to make what we now think of as chocolate.

Painting Maté, coffee, cocoa, and tea plant 1902 by Dodd, Mead and Company, public domain image courtesy of Creative Commons

Chocolate comes from the wild cocoa trees of the tropical rainforests of Central and South America and was much prized by the Mayan and Aztec people both as a bitter drink and as currency. It was taken from America and back to Europe, along with gold, by the Spanish.

How Chocolate Came to Europe

It is thought that it was Christopher Columbus who first brough cocoa beans to Europe between 1502 and 1504 but it was Don Hernán Cortés, a Spanish Conquistador, who realised their value when he brought cocoa beans back to Spain in 1528. Slowly but surely the love of chocolate spread across Europe, reaching England in the 1650s.

How the Making of Chocolate Evolved

Choclate began life as a drink which was made by boiling the pulp from cacao beans so reducing the amount of cocoa butter. Chocolate as a drink became accessible to all when in 1828 Conrad Johannes Van Houten, a Dutchman, devised a dry-press extraction method that enabled him to make chocolate powder that could be dissolved in water.

Solid chocolate as we know and love it now came about in the19th century.

Every small town in France will have a plethora of chocolate shops. The Fench love their chocolate, and what could be more romantic than chocolates from France?

Image: Cyrano Chocolate Shop, Saint Juninen Limousin France

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Well, chocolate was expensive, delectable, said to be an aphrodisiac and rather indulgent - what better combination of factors for the perfect Valentine's Day gift? It was Cadbury who first put the new chocolate candy into a heart-shaped box for Valentine's Day and perhaps it was this that set the scene.

We all know that women love chocolate, or most of us anyway, and it is an interesting fact that seventy five percent of chocolate is bought by women annually but just before Valentine's Day the same percentage is bought by men.

As children we loved to receive chocolate Easter eggs but chocolate eggs are a recent invention.

Originally Easter is linked with eggs because of the season, and also because of the imagery: eggs stand for new life and rebirth. Hens eggs used to be decorated or stained, rolled and eaten at Easter.

Chocolate Easter eggs first appeared in Europe in the early 19th century being manufactured in France and Germany. At first the eggs were often solid, and the production of the hollow chocolate eggs were made by hand where moulds were lined individually with paste chocolate.

Choclate is a vegetable. Funny, I never think of that! At the moment good, dark chocolate is said to be good for us and these are some of the health benefits cited:

- Chocolate is an antioxidant which protects the body from aging. (I like this one!)
- It helps to lower blood pressure
- It is thought to balance some hormones
- It keeps the heart running smoothly
-It reduces the bad cholesterol
- It contains serotonin which acts as an anti-depressant
- It 's a stimulant
- It's said to be an aphrodisiac (see below)
- And finally, we like chocolate and a little of what you fancy does you good!

Does chocolate make you fat? Current thought seems to go along with the theory that two thirds of the fat in chocolate is not harmful, so 'only' about one third of fat in dark chocolate is bad for you. Having said that, chocolate high in calories and still high in fat so little and not so often is the rule, and be sure that you eat good quality dark chocolate only.

Sorry about that!

An aphrodisiac is something that is supposed to increase libido, desire or performance. The word comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Chocolate is often given as a gift from one sweetheart to another, usually from man to woman, so obviously there is some hope that it will work its charms, but is there any proof that chocolate affects the body chemically to increase libido?

The finger has been pointed at a chemical called phenylethylamine which has been found in chocolate is said to be an aphrodisiac and there is some evidence that when it is released in the brain it might influence sexual attraction and arousal. This compound is, however, quickly degraded by the enzyme MAO and so it is not thought that it can actually have much influence. Sigh! (See Wikipedia for more information)

However, the powers of the mind are supreme, and anyone who waves a gorgeous box of chocs under my nose has passed test No. 1. "If chocolate be the food of love, eat on ....3

Image: Aphrodite by soham_pablo Courtesy of Flickr

And the beauty of this is that there is not a calorie in sight! So long as you don't eat it of course. One of my favourite shops for the most gorgeously decadent chocolate cosmetics is Lush and there you'll find an erotic pandora's box of chocolate luxury that will make you feel that you're good enough to eat.

Children love chocolate but they definately can have too much of a good thing. Too much sugar can make children hyper-active, (now disputed), and lead to diabetes, not to mention weight gain and bad teeth, so why not give them books about chocolate? Gorgeous, gooey chocolate stories that will entrance them and delight them giving them a love of reading that will last them all their lives. Chocolate Childrens Books for Easter

Gorge yourself on these tasty books about chocolate. Indulge in chocolate that won't make you fat. Sweet dreams?

After people had discovered chocolate it was no wonder that they developed a taste for it, but, in the 16th and 17th centuries it was so popular that it scrutinised by the church and by 1660 chocolate had, along with wine, been classified as a drink. The Catholic Church then declared that it was therefore a sin to consumed chocolate during lent.

Of course, the sinfulness of chocolate in the eyes of the church and the pleasure that people derived from it was what Joanna Harris' book, Chocolat, was all about.

All things chocolate: jewlery caught my imagination but there is just so much yummy chocy stuff out there!

- Over $1billion of chocolate is purchased for Valentine's Day

- The pods of the tree are about the size of a football

- The first chocolate bars were marketed about 1850 by an Englishman, Joseph Fry

- Manufacturing of chocolate in the USA started in 1765 by John Hannon, an Irishman

- John Cadbury made the first Cadbury Easter Eggs in 1875

-In Japan it's the women who give the chocolate to men on Valentine's Day

Rowntrees and Terry's both made chocolate in York where I was brought up in with the sickly sweet smell of the chocolate and sugar beet factories when the wind blew in a certain direction.

Terry's, famed for its chocolate oranges amongst other iconic products, is now closed and awaiting conversion into flats (I think). Rowntrees has suffered take-overs and has a rocky history but the factory, at least, is still there.

Today York is still a chocolate and sweety city. You'll find Hotel Chocolate, Lush, Thorntons and Kitchen Fudge Shop amongst many others, selling chocolate products today. Take the 'Chocolate and Sweety' walk, as I did, and discover the sweet history of chocolate in York.

Image: Terry's Factory York