{"id":355,"date":"2009-02-15T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-15T04:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radhikand.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/15\/from-xocolatl-to-chocolate"},"modified":"2009-02-15T09:48:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-15T04:18:00","slug":"from-xocolatl-to-chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/from-xocolatl-to-chocolate\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u201cxocolatl\u201d to chocolate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Yesterday was Valentine\u2019s Day\u00a0and it still is in some parts of the world depending on time zones) and I thought I should write something which is in line with the spirit of this celebration of love and loved ones. Two items that are most strongly associated with Valentine\u2019s Day or love in general are roses and chocolates. So I am taking this opportunity to write about my favourite of the two, CHOCOLATE! (Not that I do not like roses.) So here\u2019s my nerdy take on one of the most celebrated edible, and celebrated for a very long time for that matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The introduction of Wikipedia<\/a> entry on Chocolate tells us \u201cChocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods that are produced from the seed of the tropical cacao tree. Chocolate has become one of the most popular flavours in the world. It is a common ingredient in many snacks and desserts, including but not limited to cookies, cake, ice cream, pudding, pie and candy. Gifts of chocolate\u00a0molded\u00a0into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays: Easter, Hanukkah, Christmas, Valentine’s Day etc. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, including chocolate milk and hot chocolate.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The word \u2018chocolate\u2019 comes from the Aztecs of Mexico, and is derived from the Nahuatl word xocolatl<\/em> which is a combination of the words, xocolli<\/em>, meaning “bitter”, and atl<\/em>, which is “water”. The Aztecs were one of the first people who cultivated cacao at least three millennia ago in Central America and Mexico, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The Spanish conquest of the new world in the 16th century brought this popular Mesoamerican drink to Europe, which was completely unaware of it till then. And not until the industrial revolution<\/a>\u00a0in 1700s was the chocolate made into its durable, solid form we enjoy today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The fats in cocoa<\/a> butter (oil extracted from cacao tree) can crystallize in six different forms (polymorphous crystallization). Making chocolate that is considered good<\/em> is about forming as many type 5 crystals (melting point 34\u00b0C) as possible. This produces a glossy and firm chocolate that melts near body temperature (37 \u00b0C). The three types<\/a> of chocolate can be differentiated by the ingredients in them,<\/p>\n

Dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and (sometimes) vanilla
\nMilk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
\nWhite chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder, and vanilla<\/p>\n

Therefore, dark chocolate benefits<\/a>\u00a0the circulatory system. Other beneficial effects suggested include anticancer, brain stimulator, cough preventer and anti-diarrhoeal effects. After reading this, whatever little qualms I had about eating dark chocolate regularly like an addict have flown away!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are various websites dedicated to everything chocolate<\/em>\u00a0which tell you about types of chocolate, how it is made, what different flavours and forms it is enjoyed in, etc. I obviously didn\u2019t want to delve into each one of them as it would be impossible for me to stop reading about one of my most favourite treats. So with great difficulty I have narrowed down to two websites to share with you that I found most comprehensive about chocolate. The first one is xocoatl.org<\/a>\u00a0that, as its name suggests, concentrates on extensive history of chocolate. It also has sections on the various flavours, cacao harvesting and even offers a course on chocolate tasting!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The other interesting website I found was about the Field museum in Chicago that has an entire exhibition<\/a> dedicated to everything chocolate! At least for me, this is a first. The website, along with the must-have sections about history and manufacture, has list resources like books, films etc. about chocolate. It even has a \u2018chocolate challenge\u2019 for those who really think they\u2019re experts on this sweet treat. The health facts<\/a>\u00a0section has some interesting information on possible therapeutic uses of chocolate. Some of these are also mentioned in the Wikipedia entry to which I have given the link above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

So I believe I have, at least with some success, made you feel not gill-cup<\/em>\u00a0(this joke is only for avid fans of Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus<\/a>) ….. err, not guilty about indulging in a chocolaty treat on the Valentine\u2019s Day with your sweetheart or even otherwise.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was Valentine\u2019s Day\u00a0and it still is in some parts of the world depending on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,28,30,32,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-history","category-human-interference","category-linguistics","category-medicine","has-comment-form"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiance-holistic.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}