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By: Mónica Tello , Founder of Ah Cacao Chocolate Café
Secrets of Chocolate
If you find your body starts to crave the great taste of real chocolate, maybe it's because it's good for you!
Like red wine, real chocolate is rich in antioxidants that fight aging and cancer. Real chocolate also appears to lower blood cholesterol levels and contains a host of other minerals and nutrients that stimulate both body and mind.
So, if it’s real chocolate, eat without guilt and enjoy a natural boost!
Chocolate begins in the jungle, hidden in the fruits of the cacao tree (Theobroma Cacao – Food of the Gods). The elongated cacao pods contain an unexpected treasure: cacao beans, the source of the chocolate flavor we love so much.
Cacao (kah-KOW, a Mayan word) is native to Central America, where the ancient Maya and Olmec civilizations established the first plantations around three thousand years ago. Europeans, by contrast, didn't experience chocolate's delights until 1519 in the court of Moctezuma, the last Aztec emperor.
Chocolate was highly revered in prehispanic Mexico and was offered as tribute to gods and rulers. Aztec legend considers cacao a gift from Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god, forming a bridge between heaven and earth.
Today we are in the midst of a chocolate revolution with more and more chocolate lovers demanding “real chocolate” - chocolate that contains more cacao than sugar (or anything else) and doesn’t contain unpleasant additives like vegetable fat. With nothing to hide behind, real chocolate is made from high quality, fine-flavored cacao, giving a complex, long lasting, taste experience.
Chocolate lovers are also learning to appreciate the taste of different cacao varieties. The majority of the worlds chocolate today is made from "forestero" cacao, chocolate's equivalent of "robusta" coffee, with a strong but not particularly interesting flavor. To meet the increasing sophistication of consumer tastes, however, many specialist producers are turning to "criollo" cacao - the original cacao variety consumed by the Maya and the equivalent of Arabica (high altitude) coffee. With its fruity high notes and slight acidity, criollo chocolate wakens up the palette like a fine red wine - a truly 'adult' chocolate experience.
Mónica Tello is the founder of Ah Cacao Chocolate Café on 5th Ave and Constituyentes in Playa del Carmen http://www.ahcacao.com
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