Oh what a joyous thing is the Theobroma cacao seed. Once dried and fermented, cocoa solids can be extracted and that makes up the major ingredient in the most wondrous substance ever created, CHOCOLATE.
All this Week (12th – 18th Oct) is National Chocolate Week, which culminates in the Chocolate Show at Olympia (16th – 18th).
Named by the Swedish Naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 18th Century, Theobroma literally means “Food of The Gods”, it was even used as currency by the Aztecs before the Spanish conquest and was worth more than gold at the time.
Brought to Europe by the Spanish the 16th century, as a fermented drink, it wasn’t until 1847 that Joseph Fry made chocolate moldable by adding back melted Cocoa Butter to the liquid. In 1875 Daniel Peter used a powdered Milk developed by Henri Nestle and created Milk Chocolate and in 1879 the taste and texture was refined by Swiss confectioner Rudolphe Lindt when he invented the “Conching” machine which evenly distributes the ingredients during mixing.
With the success of companies like Nestle, Lindt, Cadbury and Hershey, we have the chocolate you are all familiar with today.
Chocolate comes in an almost endless variety of flavours today and can be used a principle ingredient or accompanying accoutrement to thousands of foods. It even combines well with other beverages like Coffee or Tea and some forms of Alcohol.
We stock a selection of Chocolate flavoured Teas by Yogi for example, and the Chocolate flavours are by far the biggest selling.
The Choco flavour combines the Chocolate flavour with hints Ginger and Cinnamon.
The Choco Chili is the same flavour that was around when the Aztecs were drinking Chocolate before Cortez wiped them out.
The Choco Mint is refreshing and relaxing at the sametime.
Mind You, it has it’s drawbacks too.
Ever tried getting chocolate out of your favourite top or shirt? not fun is it!
we have something that will make your life easier.
HG Stain Away 4,
made by HG for textiles only, it works wonders on chocolate stains and other organic liquids notoriously hard to remove. (we will be adding a video to our Youtube channel showcasing this in action).
If you do need an excuse for a fix of Chocolate then this week is the week for you.