“Theobroma”
the Latin word for a cocoa means literally “food of the goods”; This valuable
crop is an important part of Central American culture. Cocoa bean was firstly
consumed by pre-Columbian cultures such as Mayas and Olmeca civilization about 5000
years ago. Olmecas noticed that rats eated the fruit, that’s why they
considered it edible. These were the first nations to consume chocolate,
originally in the form of drink. To prepare it they harvested the fruits at the
beginning, then fermented, roasted and crushed them into a paste, next mixed it
with water, finally added some spices, chillies, herbs, corn as well as dried
flowers – the result was a dense, intensive, quite bitter drink used to cultivate
matrimonial ceremonies. They drank it cold and not sweetened. In the early
1500s chocolate was brought to Europe where it rapidly became a popular
beverage.
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| http://mexicoenpolonia.com/2016/03/21/culturas-prehispanicas-de-mexico/ |
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Chocolat Chaud
http://frenchfood.about.com/od/desserts/r/hotchoc.htm |
In Argentina they prepare hot milk with
a sugar and the vanilla in a mug and serve a thick rectangle of dark chocolate alongside on
the plate. It’s the funniest way of preparing hot chocolate, because you have
to sunk submarine (our piece of chocolate) into mug by yourself, than the milk
becomes a hot chocolate.
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Mexicans drink champurrado, which is a chocolate version of
their traditional Atole – drink made out of hot corn, masa (type of dough),
cinnamon, vanilla and pincillo cones. Piloncillo is a pure cane of sugar of a
golden brown color with a delicious rich flavour.
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| Champurrado |
If you need
something more spicy, you can always try Xocolatl (also called Aztec chocolate)
prepared only with the finest bittersweet chocolate with the addition of a
vanilla bean, red chili pepper and cinnamon. It resembles the original
chocolate drink with it’s density and savory. For other bold winter favors you
could also add to your hot chocolate red chili, orange zest, ginger, almonds,
peanut butter, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves or marshmallows.
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Aztec chocolate
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In summer
you can try not only mint chocolate tea, where you replace milk/water with tea
but also iced hot cocoa using chocolate or milk ice cubes instead of water.
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Ice Hot Chocolate
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When I’ve
recently hosted some French people, few of them prepared really specific cocoa
drink for their breakfast (the rest didn’t eat at all as the French usually) –
they mixed cereals and milk with cocoa powder, then added tea to that and
lastly sweetened it. For me it looked terrible ; Do you consider it disgusting
or rather tasty? Do you have some untypical way for preparing cocoa drink?
Which one of the described above would you like to try the most?
There are
uncountable numbers of recipes, maybe because benefits of chocolate are known
from centuries. It’s a strong aphrodisiac which gives us energy, enhances
circulation, improves the libido and could be used as a tonic in infectious
diseases as well as digestive disorders. Thanks to world migration all cocoa
virtues become famous so now we can enjoy it’s unique taste in thousands forms.
Annually, we consume more than three million tons of cocoa beans!
If you’re
interested, here you could see cocoa plantation and see how cocoa powder is being
prepared:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4Laz4u1lU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4Laz4u1lU
And here they’re making cocoa drink:
Sources:
Comments
For me, combining chili or other spicy tastes with chocolate sounds scary and despite that it is a popular combination, I haven't tried it yet and I don't think I will in a future.
Once I have heard about strange usage of chocolate. It was in dry version with vegetables like tomatoes or witch meat like beacon. I don't know what to think about it. It sounds disgusting because most of people think about sweets and candies while they imagine chocolate, but on the other hand - it maybe so interesting taste that we can't imagine if we won't try.
If we are talking about this French 'drink' - it doesn't seems disgusting for me. Actually I would like to try it. Of course it's unusual composition of ingredients, but it may be tasty at all.
Recently, I've discovered some great drink on the grounds that nobody wanted to eat overriped bananas. I mixed bananas and some nuts, poured prepared earlier coffee to it and added a small amount of cocoa. It was delicious and extremely stimulating, so don't drink it before going to sleep.
Personally, I would like to taste everything, though I'm not sure I'd like this spicy recipes. I've tried chocolate with hot pepper filling, it was interesting, however I won't eat it again. I've never eaten chocolate with salt, I don't find it appropriate for me ;)
Have a delicious hot chocolate!
especially now when its cold and windy.
To be honest, I'm not a fan of spicy taste, but since that time it's my favourite kind of chocolate. Each type, that I've tried, was too sweet for me. Apart from this one. Chilli papper made a balance which was perfect choice for me. Really delicious. I would recommend to everybody. Even to my enemy if I had one ;)
I have to try Champurrado, it sounds really interesting. Did you know that in years 2014/2015 we had huge deficit in cocoa? Thanks god years 2016/17 will probably bring substantial surplus.
You should check out this link : http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cocoa-cargill-idUSKCN0YD0A0
I have no idea why somebody invented "white chocolate", probably for profits as always, however I don't like it; for me it's not tasty at all.
I had no idea there was deficit in cocoa last year ,really poor thing, thanks for the link, it makes the reason for the deficit of cocoa clear.
http://www.health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate.com/images/chili-chocolate-012.jpg
Most of milk chocolates I tried are way to sweet for me. It doesn't matter if it's a bar or a cup. After consuming it I always feel like I just put a huge sugar bomb inside. However your article inspired me to try Xocolatl one day. This beverage seems like a nice way to expand my horizons as far as chocolate goes ;)
Who doesn’t like chocolate, it increases the level of endorphin that is why it makes people happy and it’s also said that is one of the aphrodisiacs.
I see the way how your French friend prepared their chocolate as testy, sometime I do it my self.
I never tried a cocoa drink with sea salt, however I really like the taste of chocolate with sea salt, so maybe it’s a good idea to try it out.
I would like to try the one with red chilli, looks interesting.
I've eaten that hot pepper Lindt chocolate, it was ok but normally I don't consume spicy things.
Yes, that's astonishing how diversified is the world, even in regard of drinking chocolate.
It definately makes me happy when I'm having a bad day.
Personally, I rarely drink a chocolate, but after this topic I want to cook some. I prefer to eat chocolate and really like to try new tastes or some weird combinations of chocolate and something else.
From this list I would like to try that one where you make your drink by yourself,
dipping the chocolate into the cup. You always can stop a process and just eat one little piece.
What I really want to try is a chocolate with a chilli. Usually, I don't eat spicy food at all, but as a combination of flavours , it might taste great.
I like to try different chocolates at E. Wedel Chocolate Lounges. Most of them are tasty, but those served cold are best.
I would probably love to taste most of those chocolates mentioned in this article, but Xocolatl and Champurrado sound like the best ones.
I can't believe the negative reviews. From the moment I first tried this, I haven't gone a day without it! Granted, I was already used to raw cacao bliss reviews and dark chocolate, so for me the flavor is just right. Not too sweet at all and definitely not watered down.