Guide – Make your own chocolates. It’s easy to make many chocolate delights yourself, with the exact ingredients you want.

This article will take you on a journey through the history of chocolate and will reveal the mystery surrounding this food which is a staple of most people’s diets nowadays. It will reveal how this food is part of our life and how it has impacted on civilizations around the world both socially, economically and spiritually.

Guide – Holding the strawberry by the leaves, dip it into the warm chocolate and swirl.

When looking at the history of chocolate we need to start during the times of the Mayan Indians and Olmec Civilizations found in Central America. The word cacao was part of the Olmec language almost 3,000 years ago and because the climate in this region was hot and humid but shady because of the tropical rain forests, cacao was able to grow there perfectly. The Mayan Indians believed that the cacao tree was owned by the gods and the pods produced by the tree were a present from these gods to us (man), and because of this the pod became a symbol of fertility and life in their society.

Guide – The Swiss eat the most chocolate. The average person eats 19lbs a year.

However, by the 18th Century, a botanist from Sweden called Linnaeus began calling the cacao tree “Theobroma Cacao” (which translates into “Drink of the Gods”). The Mayan were actually make a drink from the pods of the tree and this was often considered to be a “royal” brew and was only really enjoyed by Kings and Noblemen and by those taking part in sacred rituals. Sometimes they would include chili peppers for added flavour and other times they were add maize to it to change the texture (thicken it).

Guide – Choose quality over quantity. If you are going to eat chocolate, eat really good chocolate.

But before this in 1502, Christopher Columbus whilst on his last voyage to the Caribbean was offered a sack of the cacao seeds in lieu of payment by the Aztecs, and because he was unsure of the value of the seeds the Aztecs made a drink from it to show him its value. The Aztecs believed that the drink was a source of energy, increased their spiritual wisdom and also believed it made them more sexually powerful. They would use it increase the stamina of their warriors prior to a battle. However, it seemed that Christopher Columbus was not actually enamored by this drink, but he accepted the seeds as payment as he was curious as to its value when he returned to Spain.

Guide – In genearl, the shelf life for chocolate is a year. Chocolate that is refrigerated may not melt as readily.

Yet several years later when Cortes arrived in the New World he also noticed that the Aztecs were still using the cacao beans as the currency and would keep huge stores full of the seeds. In fact when Cortes arrived the current Aztec king Montezuma offered him a cacao plantation and a royal welcome because he thought that Cortes was the reincarnation of one of the former gods and kings. Unfortunately this lead to the downfall of the Aztec empire but was helpful to Cortes in making him see what potential this product had and he then established cacao plantations throughout the Caribbean.

After both Columbus and Cortes had returned to Spain the bitter cacao drink favoured by the Aztec culture was then introduced across Europe and people began to sweeten it so it suited European taste buds better. Unfortunately at this time it was only the elite and wealthy people who could afford to drink it and within 10 years of it arriving in Europe it was being enjoyed in all the Courts in France by their aristocracy. By the middle of the 17th Century chocolate had begun to appear in England and unfortunately because say a high tax was placed on it which continued to provide it with a reputation as a luxury item which could only be enjoyed by those who were privileged enough to afford it.

Guide – Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.

Up until 1828 cacao was only primarily made for drinking and it was prepared by grinding the beans into a thin paste and then adding spices and sweetener to them and another product which would soak up the cocoa butter which floated on the surface of the drink.

Then a Dutch chemist called Coenraad J Van Houten invented a press which was able to release the cocoa butter from the beans and leaving a dry cake of the beans which could then be ground up into a powder, very similar to the fat free cocoa power that many people around the world enjoy today.

It was only twenty years later that companies in Europe were using his press to start producing the first chocolate for eating. They found that by taking what was left after they had separated the powder and cocoa butter they could melt the butter and blend it with the ground cacao beans and sugar. They would then mix this into a past and mould it, thus producing edible chocolate. Chocolate only began appearing on the market in the USA around the turn of the 20th Century and now almost 100 years later people are still enjoying it unique and rich taste.

Guide – If you have a wrapped chocolate bar, remember, it must be unwrapped and allowed to breathe like a fine wine. Many people yield to the temptation of ripping open a candy bar and immediately taking a bite.

Guide – ‘If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you.

Adult acne is not uncommon, so don’t be alarmed if you have it! Even if you are at the age of 35 and have noticed the same acne you had when you were 16, rest assured there are many people like you. One in five women between the ages of 25 and 40 has adult acne. Obviously, seeking a good acne treatment is your first step to getting rid of this along with exceptionally good personal hygiene. It usually begins with blackheads which are the result of oil and dead cells getting trapped in a pore and blocking the duct as it mixes with bacteria. As soon as they are exposed to the air, they turn black. If a blackhead should become inflamed, red pimples will develop. They should not be touched with dirty hands as they can be spread easily.

Guide – ‘Life is like a box of chocolates..

If you have infected adult acne, there are many effective adult acne treatments that can be purchased over-the-counter. Usually when the pimple becomes infected, it develops as a whitehead or pustule. If not properly tended to, these can break and can cause acne scars.

If you have adult acne, there can be several causes. Stress is a big factor in today’s society and is certainly one that can be an underlying cause in many cases. Other causes such as hormones, birth control pills, and cosmetics can all cause adult acne. When you are under stress, your oil glands tend to overcompensate. If you apply poor quality cosmetics to your skin, they can lead to bacteria laden pores. The androgen in birth control pills can cause breakouts. One myth that says cheese and chocolate aggravate your acne is simply not true. All you need in a lot of cases is a good facial. This can rectify or at least bring your adult acne problem under control.

Guide – Holding the strawberry by the leaves, dip it into the warm chocolate and swirl.

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Guide – If one swallows a cup of chocolate only three hours after a copious lunch, everything will be perfectly digested and there will still be room for dinner.

In this article we’re going to try to clear up the myth that eating too much chocolate causes acne.

You’ve heard all the warnings by your mother growing up. “Don’t eat too much chocolate, you’ll break out!” You’d have to sneak out of the house to get a chocolate fix. And if you were like most kids, you did anything to get that fix.

Guide – The shelf life of a bar of chocolate is approximately one year.

But was chocolate really the culprit for all those pimples?

Studies show, based on a typical teenager’s diet that chocolate may have been the least of the offenders when it came to bad complexions. The truth of the matter is, pimples are caused by a number of factors other than chocolate.

For starters, bad hygiene is one of the worst causes of bad complexions. Let’s face it, most teenagers, especially boys, are too busy outside playing sports and getting dirty. Washing up is not exactly a priority to them. And when dirty hands touch dirty faces that is just prime breeding ground for acne.

Then there is the matter of diet outside of chocolate. One of the main causes of acne is oil. Many of the foods that teenagers eat have lots of oil in them. One of the main offenders is pizza. Let’s be honest, a teenager without at least five slices of pizza during the week is not a teenager. Most kids who eat in school will choose that slice of pizza over whatever there may be served that day that is at least somewhat healthy.

Guide – Choose chocolates sweetened with evaporated cane juice or barley malt. If the evaporated cane juice used is the unprocessed whole juice of the cane, it acts in the body like a whole food and doesn’t give a sugar rush.

Then there is the next thing on the list, fried foods. Fried foods make up more of a teenagers diet than just about anything else. Most kids live out of a Burger King, Wendy’s or McDonalds. French Fries are certainly number one on any kids hit parade. And who doesn’t just love a good bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken?

Guide – ‘It’s not that chocolates are a substitute for love. Love is a substitute for chocolate.

But to further disprove that chocolate actually causes acne, there are a number of new skin care products on the market that are actually made of chocolate or have chocolate as an ingredient.

There are some companies that put chocolate into their skin creams as a softener. According to these companies, the antioxidants of the chocolate also help in preventing wrinkles.

Theoretically, cocoa might actually prevent damage by free radicals to collagen, elastin and other proteins in the skin. Of course medical science has yet to either prove this or disprove this.

Proof or no proof, at least 90 chocolate based cosmetics popped up last year and the market for chocolate based cosmetics is growing daily. As a matter of fact the normal booth that is displayed at the Chocolate Show in New York has blossomed into a full blown spa. Consumers are claiming that the chocolate based skin care products that they are using do in fact have healing properties. Again, this has neither been proved or disproved.

Guide – It is widely believed that chocolate consumption releases a chemical into your body very similar to what is produced when you are in love.

The point is, there are many more offenders of bad skin than just chocolate and by avoiding fried foods and dirty hands, your teenager will more than likely have a cleaner skin.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Chocolates