Health Benefits of Chocolate.

Hi friends!! Sorry for being so late on this blog.

Did you ever know that this entrapping, mesmerizing and addictive indulgence we are so fanatic about can actually contribute positively towards our health. Several studies are paving the way for us to have a more guilt-free pleasure of losing ourselves in chocolate. 


Dark chocolate can make a notable impact on our hearts. First, it has the capability to lower the blood pressure in people with a high blood pressure. It has been shown by studies that a bar of dark chocolate everyday can help the cardiovascular activities run well. Dark chocolate has also been found to bring down the level of LDL (bad cholesterol) by about 10%.


The question that invariably strikes our mind is that, how do we ignore the effects of the enormous amounts of fat present in chocolate. The good news is that the fat present in chocolate is not completely harmful. The fats are 1/3 oleic acid, which is a monounsaturated fat, good for health and also found in olive oil, 1/3 stearic acid, which in spite of being a saturated fat has a neutral effect on cholesterol and 1/3 palmitic acid which is a saturated fat and the only part in chocolate which increases cholesterol and heart disease risks.That means just this 1/3 part of chocolate is actually harmful for us. 

Moreover, since chocolate is made from plants, it has almost the same health benefits as dark vegetable. The common helping factor is flavonoids which acts as an antioxidant and protects the body from heart diseases, aging and high blood pressure. Its amazing to know that dark chocolate contains 8 times more antioxidant than strawberries. 

The reason that people get so easily addicted to the taste of chocolate is because it stimulates the production of endorphine, which gives a feeling of pleasure and contentment. It also contains serotonin, which works as an anti-depressant. Chocolate is also rich in caffeine, theobromine and other substances that acts as stimulants. 


Apart from these scientific health benefits, chocolate is always capable of making us enormously happy, excited and satisfied. It has also been known to enhance our sexual powers since ancient times. 


So enjoy chocolate with more passion and desire and less guilty feelings. Its no more a sinful bliss....It is a captivating blessing!!

A Journey Through Chocolate

Human nature loves travelling. And for me personally, chocolate is The Best companion during my tours. It keeps my energy and enthusiasm aflame and makes me happy like none other. And what could be more enticing than the travel itself being all about chocolate.

Let's go on an alluring tour of the Chocolate Museums in Europe.


Cadbury World:  This is a family-oriented theme park in Bouneville, England, where you come across a fascinating, overwhelming and captivating chocolate episode. The tour includes a complete experience of the history of chocolate in Europe, the process of making chocolate in the factory, fascinating chocolate shops and chocolate wonderlands for kids, where you enter into a dream-world of chocolate.

Imhoff Stollwerk Chocolate Museum (The World of Chocolate): Located in Cologne, Germany, this museum is placed on the Rhine River, having a ship shaped architecture made of metals and glass. It gives you an insight into the origin of chocolate, including its cultural history spanning 3000 years, a knowledgeable  experience of chocolate manufacturing in a three-storey factory building, a mesmerizing opportunity to taste chocolate from a chocolate fountain and a shop overlooking the Rhine River having chocolate varieties, snacks and memoirs.

Le Musee du Chocolat Bovetti (The Chocolate Museum Bovetti): In Villedieu, France, this museum enables you to know the journey of chocolate from cacao beans to the smooth creamy taste of solid chocolate, visuals explaining the cacao plantation, workshops on chocolate production and mechanisms and children workshops where kids can make chocolate mementos by themselves.

Museo Storica della Perugina (Historical Museum of Perugia): This museum is a delicious tribute to the city of Perugia, Italy, and is dedicated to the history of chocolate making. Located in the San Sisto Suburb of Perugia, the museum is actually called 'Stabilimento Nestl', and is distinguished by a pleasant aroma of baking brownies.

Alprose:  The Alprose chocolate museum situated in Caslano in the district of Lugano, Switzerland, covers every possible aspect of chocolate starting from its origin, its cultural evolution, its first manufacturing plants to the modern styles and varieties. In its shop you will get chocolate in a tempting and overwhelming variety of tastes and styles. 


Cailler Nestle: Don't forget to include a tour of Cailler Nestle chocolate factory located in the town of Broc, Switzerland, which was founded in the year 1897 by Alexandre Cailler. You get a 45-minutes tour which fills you with every bit of information about the history of chocolate, starting from the Aztecs to the Spanish conquistadors. The tour ends with an exotic episode of getting to taste every imaginable chocolate variety, being displayed on large tables in a tasting room.

Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate: Belgium, which is one of world's largest chocolate consumers and producers is the home of this exotic chocolate museum. The museum is situated a few minutes away from Brussel's main market area called Grand Place. Like the other grand museums, this one also exhibits the journey of chocolate from cacao beans to the bitter drink made by the Aztecs to today's fine taste. There are videos, posters and display panels to show cocoa plantations and chocolate making processes. The most enticing event of this tour is the personal presentation made by an expert chocolate maker on how to prepare pralines in a traditional way.

So I am done taking you on an intellectual tour of these amazing, mouth-watering places in various parts of Europe. The next time you plan an exciting vacation, don't forget to include some of these chocolate paradises in your list.
See you soon with something more on this addictive allurement - Chocolate.

Visit my Facebook group for chocolate lovers:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=148804398483711&ref=ts

Tracing the Origin of this Delicious Indulgence

Hey friends....I'm back!!

I was doing some research to get an insight into the origin of this finger-licking indulgence we call chocolate. My obsession with chocolate has reached such an altitude that I couldn't help looking for the beginning of this madness. And you know what....the history is equally fascinating. Now people who were strongly disinclined towards the history book during their school days, please don't run away....Let me remind you that this is the story about the love of your life - Chocolate. Now did you get back your interest?? Let's move on....

Chocolate, the chief ingedient in a number of mouth-watering foods like cookies, cereals, milk shakes, bakeries, flavoured coffee, ice-creams etc, was first traced around 2000 years back in the rain forests of Central America, where the high temperature and humidity along with high rainfall throughout the year made a perfect environment for the tree. The pods of the cacao tree contains seeds which in a processed and modified form is chocolate. These cacao trees were worshiped  by the Mayan Civilization of Central America and Southern Mexico, since it was believed to be of divine origin. The word 'Cacao', which is a Mayan word, actually means God's Food. In modern times, the Latin generic name of the tree is 'Theobrama Cacao', meaning 'Food of the God'. The Maya used the cacao seeds by roasting and blending them with maize and chilli pepper and then fermenting the mixture. They prepared a spicy, bitter drink with this mixture which was limited to the use of the elite class gatherings.

The Aztecs, a group of people who settled in a valley of  Central Mexico in the 14th century, prized the cacao seeds and brewed them in the same way as the Mayans. But since they lived in northern areas where the climate didn't support the growth of the tree, they had to trade them with the Mayans. By 1400, the Aztecs conquered much of Central America, and made the conquered people pay their taxes with cacao beans. The Aztecs prized the cacao seeds to such an extent that they used them as currency and also valued them more than gold and silver. They named the bitter drink 'Xocolatl'. When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in 1519, they found this word outrageously difficult to pronounce and modified it to 'Chocolat', which was further evolved by the English as 'Chocolate'.

Chocolat or Chocolate was first introduced in Europe by Cortez, who conquered the Aztecs. It was introduced in a more modified form where the spicy, bitter drink was flavoured with vanilla and sugar and was made compatible with the European taste. The Spanish established the first chocolate factory in Spain where the cacao beans brought over from the conquered land of Central America, was roasted and fermented and made to chocolate powder by which the European version of the chocolate drink was prepared. Within a very short span of time the chocolate powder became very popular among the people in countries like France, Italy, Germany. The first chocolate house in England was established in London in 1657 which very shortly led to the establishment of many others, where the elite class social and official meetings were held over the chocolate drink.

Chocolate was brought back to America by the English colonists. And in modern times United States of America and Canada are the largest purchasers of chocolate.

The transition of chocolate from liquid to solid form, as we know it today, was first made in Europe in 1600, as the European bakers started adding cocoa powder to cakes. In fact, the modern form of chocolate should be attributed to the Quakers, a pacifist religious sect of Europe, who were barred from engaging in most of the conventional businesses because of their pacifist religion. Hence they chose businesses related to food, and with their strong sense of business ethics, flourished greatly in their chosen field. The world famous companies founded by the Quakers are Cadbury, Rowntree and Fry & Sons, among which Fry & Sons were the first to introduce chocolate bars in 1847. Of course a Dutch chemist named Johannes Van Houten, paved the way for making chocolate bars when he discovered a way to remove the bitter tasting fat known as Cocoa Butter from the grounded cacao beans, in an attempt to make the chocolate drink lighter and tastier. Fry & Sons used this extracted cocoa butter blended with sugar and cocoa powder to make the first chocolate bar for us. And later in 1875, Daniel Peters, a Swiss manufacturer modified this form by adding dried milk powder to the mixture of cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar to make milk chocolate.

And the rest is known to all of us......The history of chocolate becoming our passion, obsession and addiction.
Wasn't it wonderful to know the process of evolution of this quintessential fanaticism we crave to indulge in??
Oh I'm sure it was. Will be back with more on chocolate.......Till then enjoy more of this madness....Bye Bye...

Check out my Facebook group for chocolate lovers

Chocolate Passion....Love or Lust??

Love...Sex...Chocolate...When the thought of chocolate crosses my mind, the very first feelings is that of an unquenchable craving, which gets unbearable with every moment of suppression. Its like depriving the body, the mind and the senses of something pleasurable and addictive. The insatiable addiction to the pleasure of feeling the creamy, plushy thing melting inside the mouth is as satisfying to my entire being as a highly exhilarating sexual experience. So the height of the addiction is quite understandable.

At times, the love or the lust, whatever is an appropriate term for my chocolate cravings.....let me use the term LUST to be more honest, is so heightened, that I feel it overshadows the presence of all the actual romantic involvements in my life. I often wonder if its sinful to be so intensely in love (or probably lust) with chocolate. In fact, the piece of information I gathered from the internet the other day, about chocolate being used by several renowned personalities of world history, including the famous lover of the eighteenth century, Casanova, with a purpose of improving their sexual skills and urges, set me free to some extent of my guilty conscience.

The diversity that comes with chocolate is another overwhelming thing to know. I wonder if we could get the same variety of options when it came to choosing men in our lives. That's one petty reason, besides many major ones, why I am more often fascinated by a chocolate than a man. Among all the varieties, I always go for dark chocolate, because I strongly feel it arouses me the same way as when I'm in love. The moment I get the wrapped up chocolate in my hands, the wait for me to open it gets unbearable. And then the entire process of slowly unwrapping its cover, aching for it, starting to taste the pleasure, feeling the sweet-bitter cream inside my mouth, and finally the ineffable bliss of having it, is heavenly sensuous and exciting.

So what is this longing all about?? is it the chemicals present in chocolate that is known to stimulate sexual feelings in us....the nonpareil flavour that seems perfect at all moments....or the various reasons chocolate is way better than men or sex - I can have a diverse variety of chocolate without suffering a bad conscience, I may have it as many times a day as I feel like and still feel fresh and energetic, I am never bound by any area constraints for having chocolate, there is no age limits and no body to feel jealous and question me for switching to a new brand. Its available to me any moment I need it and can be discarded whenever I am not in the mood to indulge in the pleasure of it. I can conclude that the longing is because of its awesome and amazing ability to satiate all our senses and secret desires, without being adulterous.

Chocolate is one heavenly pleasure which is absolutely peerless and mesmerizing.
Come.....Fall in Chocolate.......

Visit my Facebook group meant for chocolate lovers. Its fun and enticing.
Love...Sex...Chocolate...