All about chocolates

History
Chocolate is produced from the fruit of the cacao tree. The cacao tree is a native of Central and South America and is grown in equatorial countries around the world.
Christopher Columbus 'discovered' chocolate on August 15, 1502, when he stole the cargo of a native trader near modern Honduras. Columbus assumed that the beans were a kind of almond, and all he really knew about them was that someone else thought they were valuable; so, for the glory of Church, State, and Christopher Columbus, he took them.
In fact, the strange, aromatic beans were so valuable that they were used as currency by the local islanders. The mysterious booty was taken back to Spain, where it failed utterly to make a favourable impression until 20 years later, when Hernando Cortez 're-discovered' cacao by demolishing the Aztec empire. The Aztecs had enjoyed chocolate for generations as a beverage made from crushed cacao beans mixed with water or wine. It was usually seasoned with vanilla or chillies.
The Aztecs had inherited the bitter tasting, frothy drink from the Maya people, who had started saying 'Cacao' to each other around 500 AD. To Spanish tastes, Aztec drinking chocolate was much too bitter, and they also found the muddy texture repugnant. But, on the off chance that it might turn out to be an aphrodisiac, they decided to stick with it, and chocolate has been inextricably linked to sex ever since.
In Europe a chocolate drink, now sweetened with sugar, became the drink of choice among the nobility. By the simple expedient of stealing tropical islands and enslaving their inhabitants, cacao plantations around the world (principally in Dutch and English colonies) made chocolate accessible to commoners (albeit rich ones).
In 1828, the Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. van Houten invented a way to press the fat from roasted cacao beans, thus creating a means to economically produce what we would recognise as cocoa powder. The process of adding alkaline salts to cocoa powder to make it easier to mix with water is still known as 'Dutching'. In 1849, the Englishman Joseph Storrs Fry mixed sugar and cocoa butter with Houten's cocoa powder to produce the world's first chocolate bar.
Milk chocolate was invented in 1879 by the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Daniel Peter, who had the idea of adding powdered milk (invented by the Swiss chemist Henri Nestlé in 1867) to the mixture.


How to make a chocolate bar:
Selection - A blend of perhaps as many as 12 different types of bean are selected.
Roasting - Each type of bean is roasted separately.
Winnowing - The hard outer hulls are removed from the 'nibs'.
Grinding - The roasted beans are ground under granite rollers in a machine called a melangéur. Sugar and vanilla are added. The traditional tool used for grinding and blending chocolate is called a metate; it's a large, slightly curved stone tool used like a mortar and pestle.
Conching - Chocolate liquor is blended and gently heated for up to 72 hours.
Tempering - Tempering involves heating the chocolate and cooling it in several stages. This changes the chemical structure of the chocolate to a form that will retain its shape when moulded.
Moulding - The liquid chocolate is poured into moulds then allowed to cool and set hard.

Chocolate and health

• Eating chocolate neither causes nor aggravates acne.
• Chocolate does not promote tooth decay, although the sugar in chocolate, as in other foods, does cause cavities. There is even evidence that the cocoa butter in chocolate may inhibit the formation of plaque.
• They are instant energy boosters.
• They are a good combo of nutrients, proteins as well as vitamins.
• Chocolates contain flavonals which are antioxidants, also present in apples and red wine. In fact a 50 mg bar of dark chocolate is equivalent to 6 apples, 2 glasses of wine and 7 onions in its flavonoid contents.
• Chocolates posses anti clotting effect in same measure as an asprin. Thus chocolates assist in reducing the risk of deep vein thrombosis when flying.
• It has been proved that sniffing a chocolate bar can boost your immune system by raising the level of antibodies in the body.
• Cocoa butter contains phenolics, which are believed to reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Chocolate contains theobromine, caffeine, phenylethylamine and anandamide. Theobromine and caffeine are stimulants. Phenylethylamine combines with dopamine in the brain to produce a mild anti-depressant effect. Anandamide produces feelings of calm and well being.

Sex and Chocolate

From the beginning there has been a connection between sex and chocolate. The complex relationship of consuming chocolate, feeling good, having sex, and consuming more chocolate is an intricate pattern set on a Mayan loom, and woven more deftly with every new generation in every new culture.

History is full of stories about people who put chocolate’s reputation to the test.

• Montezuma supposedly drank 50 cups of chocolate a day. And as if that weren’t enough, he downed an additional cup to increase his stamina before consorting with his female companions.
• Casanova, reportedly the greatest lover who ever lived, was said to have drunk chocolate daily to increase his amorous energy. Supposedly he preferred it over champagne as an aphrodisiac.
• St. Valentine’s Day supported the tradition of sending chocolates to the one you love—the idea being that the candy’s mysterious properties would seduce your beloved’s heart and cause him or her to return your feelings.

Reasons why chocolates are better than sex

• When you have chocolate it does not keep you neighbors awake.
• You are never too young or too old for chocolate.
• Good chocolate is not hard to find.
• With chocolate there's no need to fake it.
• You can ask a stranger for chocolate without getting your face slapped.
• You can have chocolate on top of your desk during office hours without upsetting your co-workers.
• The word "commitment" doesn't scare off chocolate.
• You can make chocolate last as long as you want it to.
• You can safely have chocolate while you are driving.
• You can GET chocolate.
• It stays hard by simply putting it in the fridge.
• It doesn't snore straight after the act of passion is finished.
• Chocolate contains a naturally occurring amino acid called phenylethylamine. It helps to cure hangovers, it gets rid of the headache; sex doesn't, it normally makes it worse.
• Chocolate contains theobromine. This is a mild long lasting stimulant that leaves you in a good mood for ages afterwards. Sex normally doesn't quite match up to this.
• What tastes best, chocolate or sex?
• Sex can pass on diseases. With the odd exception of a salmonella scare, chocolate doesn't.
• Eating chocolate can be messy at times, however sex can be a whole lot messier, on more than one level.
• What's cheaper to insure? A bar of chocolate or a husband.