chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

[phthalocyanine]

chocolate enthusiasts, chocoholics, and casual munchers - this is the thread for you!

i'm not a stickler for rules, so anything chocolate-related is fine.

some chocolatey facts:


Cacao beans were a staple food for the Maya, and were once used as currency by the Aztecs because they were so rare in their land.

Chocolate contains tryptophan which aids serotonin production. Chocolate has been considered a mood lifter (and aphrodisiac) since ancient times.

One chocolate chip gives the average adult enough energy to walk 150 feet!
Napoleon used to carry chocolate for his energy lapses, and the famous Hershey Bar came into being at the request of the American military.

Dark chocolate contains the highest antioxidant content of any food.

The first heart-shaped valentine's day candy box was created by Richard Cadbury (the founder of England’s Cadbury chocolate company) in 1868.

Aztec Emperor Montezuma "took no other beverage than the chocolatl", which he called "the divine drink". Chocolatl was "a potation of chocolate, flavored with vanilla and spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold." Montezuma purportedly drank chocolatl in a golden goblet 50 times per day.

Chocolate syrup was used to simulate blood in the famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho”.


food for thought:

what are your favorites?

is there such a thing as a bad chocolate?

do you have any favored chocolate recipes?

 

[disregard]

There is definitely a such thing as bad chocolate!

And good:

 

[gromit]

I gave it up for Lent.

 

[Oaky]

*twitch*








(The story: For 2 months now I have stopped chocolate willingly as I am quite addicted to chocolate. Chocolate had a few effects on me such as hyperactivity and fatigue. I was advised that chocolate and any other candy for that matter should be canceled from my eating habits. However, I still crave it to this day to a point where I have to percieve the aroma of an open nutella jar. I am depending on my will alone to stop myself from eating some.)

 

[Lexicon]

In George Romero's Night of The Living Dead, he used a combination of ham chunks and chocolate syrup as human meat/blood for his hordes of the undead to munch on.

I used to believe there was no such thing as bad chocolate. I reallly wish I could recall the name brand, or what country it came from, but my mom brought home some sort of middle eastern dark chocolate from work [ordinarily I love dark chocolate].. this stuff was just.. wrong.

Another time, I bought a Clark bar from a vending machine in Canada.
It tasted like dirt.
Someone plz explain this.


I think chocolates filled with stuff are gross. Especially mysterious pink goo.
And coconut.
I hate it so much.


And don't get me started on white chocolate. Shit shouldn't even count! :steam:



..wow.
I guess I might be a little picky.

 

[Phantonym]

I'm actually quite indifferent to chocolate. I've never had any serious craving for it. Nor do I try to avoid it at any cost. Dark chocolate used to disgust me when I was younger and I thought that there's no way that I'd ever like it. Guess what...I love it now.

I do like white chocolate and milk chocolate but if I'd have to choose, I would definitely take just a piece of really good dark chocolate and let it have a party on my tongue... It only takes one heavenly piece and I can now understand how chocoholics might feel. I had never felt like that towards chocolate before when I was younger.

There definitely is such a thing as bad chocolate. Bad chocolate is basically a bar of hardened vegetable fat that resembles the colour brown. It's filled with artificial flavouring with no real connection to chocolate whatsoever. It's what the cheap stuff is made of. You wouldn't believe how awful it really is until you realize that the brown gunk is never going to melt in your mouth, it only sticks to your teeth.

I don't really have any chocolate recipes myself but there's this little adorable chocolaterie in a city I live and they have the most delicious chocolate drinks that are so rich, different varieties with lots of different ingredients...cinnamon, ginger, chili, rum, raisins, candied orange, you name it...absolute heaven I happen to indulge in a few times a year (wouldn't want to spoil the experience by making it something mundane, wouldn't I now ).

 

[Thalassa]

I'm neither vegan nor a raw foodist, but seriously, if you ever get a chance to try raw vegan chocolate mousse with a nut crust EAT IT it is freaking delicious.

 

[Saslou]

I do like chocolate especially white chocolate but i am more of a sweet fan .. Actually i just eat any kind of sugar to raise my energy levels.

On Friday i won first prize at work .. Thornton's Easter egg.
http://www.thorntons.co.uk/ThorntonsSite/product/Easter_Eggs/3361.htm

3000 odd calories .. I had a tiny bit of the egg Friday night and got the worst migraine ever so i gave the egg to my stepfather. I dare not eat the box of chocolates that came with them.

 

[sammy]

I have to have chocolate in some form every day. Call me addicted, I don't care.

Usually, the forms I have it in are the following:

• 
  Hot Chocolate
  Hershey's
  Ghiridelli Bars
  Godiva
  Chocolate chip cookies
  Ice cream
  Any kind of regular ol' candy bar
  Chocolate Milk

listfail.

 

[Loxias]

I'm neither vegan nor a raw foodist, but seriously, if you ever get a chance to try raw vegan chocolate mousse with a nut crust EAT IT it is freaking delicious.

How can there be raw foodist chocolate food?
Chocolate is made from roasted (and previously fermented) cacao beans as far as I understand it. Can it still be considered raw food?

 

[Phantonym]

How can there be raw foodist chocolate food?
Chocolate is made from roasted (and previously fermented) cacao beans as far as I understand it. Can it still be considered raw food?

It's raw, meaning that the fruits and vegetables used are uncooked and blended together for a mousse. Cocoa powder is most likely used.

Some info I pulled out of the net about raw cocoa powder:

...cocoa powder is made by cold-pressing our highest quality organic raw cacao beans into a cake, which separates the oil from the protein and fiber, making a dark brown paste called chocolate liquor. The temperature is never allowed to exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit but usually only reaches 113 degrees. A high accuracy thermometer monitors this process. Other cocoa powders can be exposed to temperatures as high as 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, the some of the fat is slowly separated into cacao butter and what remains is a cake. This cake or cocoa solid is then cold-milled to become a truly raw organic unsweetened cocoa powder. The powder allows for maximum digestion and antioxidant absorption.

Once the fat has been removed and there are no extra ingredients added, such as sugar, it is the healthiest form of chocolate you will enjoy.

Source.

 

[Spamtar]

Chocolate contains Phenethylamine (PEA) is a natural monoamine alkaloid, trace amine, and psychoactive drug with stimulant effects. In the mammalian central nervous system, phenethylamine is believed to function as a neuromodulator or neurotransmitter. It is sold as a dietary supplement for purported mood and weight loss-related therapeutic benefits; however, orally ingested phenethylamine is usually inactive on account of extensive first-pass metabolism by monoamine oxidase (MAO) into phenylacetic acid, preventing significant concentrations from reaching the brain. So mix in a little MAO inhibators with your chocolate (preferably those found in nature).

In addition three substances in chocolate and cocoa powder may mimic cannabinoid by activating receptors or increasing anandamide levels. Anandamide is a lipid that binds to cannabinoid receptors and mimics the psychoactive effects of the drug. Chocolate is widely believed to enhance the effect of marijuana. Word on the street is it is best to warm your chocolate canibus brownie in the over and microwave before you munch it num num num...

 

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

^oooh, intp smooth talk.


You forgot to say that PEA is the culprit when you are love sick.

 

[Spamtar]

^oooh, intp smooth talk.


You forgot to say that PEA is the culprit when you are love sick.

 

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

Chocolate and I go way back. It was my first lover. I remember scraping up money and walking to the corner store and (this is really gross) buying a can of chocolate frosting and just eating it with a spoon *euphoric recall* over a couple days, until it was gone. I can still remember the feeling of warmth that enveloped me, and the feeling of peace that came over me. So soothing. Hershey's bars, Hershey's bars with almonds, candy bars with chocolate in them, chocolate "i screams" cookies (don't think they make em anymore), chocolate cake, those YUMMY chocolate bars that kids who play baseball sell, chocolate syrup, my friend's yearly chocolate fudge, chocolate fondue (for bbq's in summer), chocolate brownies, my favorite ice cream of all time--Baskin Robbin's Chocolate Raspberry Truffle-- and the daily handful of frozen chocolate chips.



ahhhhhhhhh




who needs men anyway?

 

[BRMC117]

is it weird that I dont like chocolate? I perfer a slice of bread as to a Hershey Kiss.

 

[Thalassa]

is it weird that I dont like chocolate? I perfer a slice of bread as to a Hershey Kiss.

Some people hate chocolate. My ex didn't like it much.

 

[Tallulah]

I adore chocolate.

**55% cocoa dark chocolate is my favorite.

**White chocolate is not chocolate. Don't give me some and act like you gave me chocolate. Because you didn't.

**Hershey's is not great chocolate, but not the worst by a long shot.

**I like fancy expensive chocolates and truffles, but when they taste more like liqueur than chocolate, it's disappointing.

**If I'm promised dessert and then find that chocolate is not a choice (ie: apple pie, bread pudding, creme brulee), I feel cheated. It's like it's not really dessert.

**Cheap Valentine's candy is not worth the calories.

**Chocolate fondue fountains are the best thing ever invented. I want one in my house.

is it weird that I dont like chocolate? I perfer a slice of bread as to a Hershey Kiss.

Yes. Yes, it is.

 

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

is it weird that I dont like chocolate? I perfer a slice of bread as to a Hershey Kiss.

FREAK!

I adore chocolate.

**55% cocoa dark chocolate is my favorite.

**White chocolate is not chocolate. Don't give me some and act like you gave me chocolate. Because you didn't.

**Hershey's is not great chocolate, but not the worst by a long shot.

**I like fancy expensive chocolates and truffles, but when they taste more like liqueur than chocolate, it's disappointing.

**If I'm promised dessert and then find that chocolate is not a choice (ie: apple pie, bread pudding, creme brulee), I feel cheated. It's like it's not really dessert.

**Cheap Valentine's candy is not worth the calories.

**Chocolate fondue fountains are the best thing ever invented. I want one in my house.

 

[BRMC117]

FREAK!

Yes. Yes, it is.

*backs away slowly from the thread*