All you need is love.
But a little chocolate now and then
Doesn’t hurt
1. MULTI-BILLION $$$ BUSINESS Gifts (yourself/others)
Novelties – Books (Chocolate Shoppe Mysteries) – Riddles – Puzzles – Quotes – etc.
TASTING … Tasting notes indicate the aromas contained in a chocolate bar when you taste it.
“Bitter as the pain it consoles, but sweeter than the love it inspires.” … Chaudun – French Chocolatie
2. CACAO BEAN … raw bean
-The cacao bean is the basis for ALL chocolate.
-Cacao = raw / Cocoa = roasted at high temperatures
-Money that grew on trees. The first people to grow cacao trees were the Maya, one of the oldest civilizations on the American continent. They used the cocoa beans as a barter CURRENCY.
-Three varieties … Criollo (refined taste), Forastero (hardiness/high yield), Trinitario (hybrid)
-Five years to produce fruit / Pods ready in 6 months / 20° Equator
-Each pod contains beans (seeds) surrounded by a sweet pulp.
As they ferment, the beans gather moisture and become plump and their flavor changes from bitter to the beginnings of what we know as a chocolate flavor. Proper fermentation gives the cacao beans better flavor and results in less time roasting the bean to bring out that flavor.
Once roasted, the outer shell comes off the beans to reveal the inside, called the nibs. Cocoa nibs consist of about 50 percent cocoa butter. The nibs get ground into cocoa liquor, also known as cocoa mass. The cocoa liquor is further processed through pressing, which separates out the cocoa butter and leaves behind the cocoa cake. Cocoa cake becomes cocoa powder when it is ground.
3. KINDS / TYPES
-Dark … No added milk solids. The basic ingredients are cacao beans, sugar, an emulsifier like soy lecithin to preserve texture, and flavorings such as vanilla. The more cocoa and less sugar dark chocolate has, the more bitter it will taste.
-Milk … Made with milk added in the form of powdered milk, liquid milk, or condensed milk.
-White … Made from cocoa butter (edible fat extracted from the cocoa bean), sugar and milk solids. White chocolate does not contain cocoa solids.
-Ruby … Produced via processing and not a new variety / Possibly from unfermented cocoa beans, which can have a natural red-pinkish color. Introduced in 2017 by Barry Callebaut, a Belgian–Swiss cocoa company.
4. HEALTH/THERAPY
The raw Cacao bean is rated the highest superfood because it is a naturally High Antioxidant Food due to flavonoids (phytonutrients that are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits).
Antioxidants rid the body of free radicals (by-products of digestion, metabolism, respiration) and keep the cells from oxidizing (breaking down). They are the primary cause of 200+ diseases. Cells lose an electron – oxygen-free molecules migrate through the bloodstream and steal an electron from a healthy cell. Antioxidants neutralize or eliminate free radicals keeping the cells healthy.
-Contains minerals, vitamins, protein, and fiber that are vital to the body’s functioning
-Suppresses appetite / Weight loss
A small square of good chocolate (ex. Lindt dark 70% 90%) melted on the tongue 20 minutes before a meal triggers the hormones in the brain that say “I’m full”, cutting the amount of food you consume. Finishing a meal with the same small trigger could reduce snacking.
-Boosts mood thanks to increased serotonin and endorphin level
Chocolate can be lethal to dogs because they lack the enzyme to metabolize the theobromine in chocolate.
5. QUALITY
Hershey (factory) / Valrhona (small)
Compare Hershey (factory) and Valrhona (small)
Organic with 70%+ cacao and no dairy is the best. Dairy reduces the antioxidant benefits.
YES/NO pages 43-52.
SAY YES … 1. Cacao … 2. Chocolate / Cocoa / Cane / Fructose / Vanilla / Salt / Soy lecithin … 3. Beeswax / Citric acid / Gum Arabic / Lactose / Milk / Sodium bicarbonate / Tapioca
SAY NO … Aspartame / Syrup corn or glucose / Denatured alcohol / Hydrogenated oils
6. AROUND THE WORLD … AROUND THE WORLD
Local – Dark Skies Cherry Springs Chocolate / Cherry Springs State Park / Memories
Belgium – Godiva / Guylian (shells) …
British – Cadbury
French – Valrhona (top quality)
Italian – Amedei (top) / Ferrero Rocher / Ghirardelli
Mexican – Taza (stone ground – hot)
Swiss – Lindt / Toblerone
USA – Hershey / Nestle (Kit Kat popular in Japan)
SOME FAVORITES
Raspberry Smidgens / Orange Chocolate / Bourbon Caramels
7. ICE CUBES … Chocolatiers
Melts easily in the mouth and has a cooling effect as the heat energy is absorbed.
This effect is due to the melting point of coconut oil lying lower than chocolate.
When materials undergo a phase change (solid to liquid), they absorb a lot of energy. Your sensation of feeling cold is just your body’s way of interpreting heat energy leaving your body and going into something else. Ice Cubes are largely coconut oil (melts at about 97°F) just below body temperature (98°F), so as soon as it goes in your mouth it melts, absorbs heat out of your mouth, and leaves it feeling cold.
This is called the enthalpy of fusion (solid-liquid).
Enthalpy of vaporization is liquid-gas
Enthalpy of sublimation is solid-gas).
When you get something at the temperature of a state change, it stays at that temperature while the state change is occurring, and heat is absorbed in order to affect the state change. So, the temperature of the solid coconut oil stays just below body temperature the whole time it’s melting, and the absorbed heat all goes towards effecting a state change rather than heating up the material.
8. MEDITATION
Belgium Truffle Truffle – made with a chocolate ganache center (filling) coated in chocolate, cocoa powder or chopped toasted nuts usually in a spherical, conical, or curved shape.
Chocolate Meditation Course
BY JULIE DITTMAR available on DAILYOM.COM
Lesson 1: Chocolate is a Reflection of Unity Consciousness
Lesson 2: Chocolate is the Celebration of the Senses
Lesson 3: Chocolate is a Teacher of Patience and Inner Peace
Lesson 4: Chocolate is a Delicious Gift of the Present Moment
Lesson 5: Chocolate is the Harmonious Soul of Service
Lesson 6: Chocolate is a Reflection of Life
Lesson 7: Chocolate is the Seed of Pure Intention
Lesson 8: Chocolate and the Art of Giving and Receiving Certificate of Completion
Chocolate is a Reflection of Unity Consciousness
Take a piece of your favorite chocolate. Place the chocolate on your tongue and press it up against the roof of your mouth to warm and melt it, and to release the flavors. Enjoy it slowly and mindfully. Imagine how many individual cacao beans are celebrating their purpose by coming together for this very moment with you, and serving you with this delicious experience, together as one. Can you begin to view others, no matter how insignificant of a role they appear to play in your life, as an equally vital part of the whole? Can you see yourself and others as distinct and unique cacao beans that unite together to make something original and amazing in the sweetness of life?
Chocolate is the Celebration of the Senses
Take a piece of chocolate and allow it to be celebrated through every sense of your being. What does it feel like when you hold it? Can you smell the many flavors it offers? What kind of sound does it make when you bite into it? How many different layers of flavor are you able to notice?
Chocolate is a Teacher of Patience and Inner Peace
Take one piece of chocolate and place it your mouth, pressing it up to the roof of your mouth with your tongue. Allow it to simply melt on its own. Can you allow the melting chocolate to teach you a deeper level of patience, and allow yourself to fully enjoy the experience without needing to rush or hurry to something else? Then, gently move the chocolate across the roof of your mouth with your tongue to feel it melt…resisting the urge to take a bite and “get through it.” Allow it to melt into your mouth, and then into the deliciousness of your entire being.
Chocolate is a Delicious Gift of the Present Moment
Unwrap a piece of chocolate, and as you place it in your mouth, remind yourself how it is an experience you are only here to enjoy in this moment. Close your eyes, and allow your senses to narrate the story of this experience, with sensations your mind may notice, but does not have to label, judge, or categorize. Give the chewing, melting, and tasting of the chocolate your complete, and undivided attention. Allow each moment with the chocolate to be your sole focus, as if the moment is the most significant part of your day.
Chocolate is the Harmonious Soul of Service
While eating a piece of your favorite chocolate, can you notice the ways in which chocolate accepts, however, you already are, and serves you with a simple moment of delicious delight? Who are the people in your life you can afford to serve in this simple of a way? Can this renewed sense of acceptance, openness and generosity enhance the existing relationship? Can you be aware and grateful for all the people who have served in the chocolate-making process from cacao bean to bar, to you, for you to enjoy?
Chocolate is a Reflection of Life
Gather a few different types of chocolates you have never tasted before. Break off a piece of each, and one by one, taste them slowly. Notice the different combination of flavors each offers, and really notice how you feel within each experience. Instead of remaining stuck on how you feel about each sample, as an opinion that indicates good or bad, can you use this as an opportunity to love and accept the many ways these chocolates motivate you to feel?
Chocolate is the Seed of Pure Intention
After you have set your intention by deciding what it is you would really like to feel more of in your body, bite into a piece of chocolate. Notice the chocolate is a symbolic gift delivering into your experience whatever intention you have now decided life is capable of offering you in all moments. How can you receive and appreciate the chocolate from only the point of view of the intention you’ve set? Does it change the way the chocolate usually tastes? Can you imagine it opening up a part of your life in a refreshingly new, and exciting way?
Chocolate and the Art of Giving and Receiving
Take a bite of chocolate and as it melts, can you notice the exact sweetness you taste to be a reflection of the sweetness within yourself? Can the simple act of eating this chocolate be a moment of experiencing the depth of sweetness already within you? Can you discover its depth of sweetness, so that it may become a gift you can regularly offer to everyone you interact with in your movie of life?