Hooked On the Weightloss Shake

That’s right, put some cocoa in your chili. It’s actually done quite often, as weird as it sounds.

The mexicans call it “mole” though technically mole sauce is a little more involved than simply pouring some chocolate on an enchilada.

It’s not sweet, it’s the cocoa flavor you’re going for. One of the problems with many chilies is the over saltiness of the end product. There’s not too much salt in a tomatillo, or a tomato. Not too much salt in serrano peppers, or jalapenos. But add them all together and you’ve got one extremely salty bowl.

Most people counter the salty acidic taste with a teaspoon of sugar. This is a simple fix, and certainly works, but add a teaspoon of cocoa to that sugar and you’ve got a whole new enriching flavor to your chili. I certainly recommend it!

I also recommend good health! And what better way to start the road to good health than with a few good health links…

This best antioxidant website is a blog like mine, only a little better!

These omega 3 capsules are sure to help with your arthritis.

Damage Control is a line of premium multivitamins, gobs better than Centrum.

If you’re into primal health, try this caveman diet.

Even chocoholics must go without occasionally.

A fast from chocolate is a rare thing for me, but it’s that time in my schedule when I must work off the pudginess I’ve developed over a year of eating chocolate and that time is now. So, I bid farewell to my dark antioxidant dreams and cocoa supplement purity, and I replace it all with tuna fish and vinegar.

Disgusting, I know, tuna fish and vinegar. But I’m going on a real health kick here, loading myself up with omega 3 vitamins and essential minerals, all while reducing my daily calorie intake. I’ve started an exercise program as well. Basically just aerobics with music, but I’m adding some weight training to the regiment as well.

So, I apologize that this post (and possibly the next few) are a bit sparse, but I’m just trying to not focus on chocolate right now, because I know if I start thinking about it and talking about it, I’ll soon start eating it, and that’s not good for anyone’s sake (least of all my wife, who wants a fit sexy husband, even at 63!).

In parting, I suggest you head on over to the vitamin shop like I did. They’ve got some great stuff on omega 3 capsules, which aren’t as tasty as good old cocoa, but at least you’ll be getting nutritious.

If you’ve read my previous entries, you’ve probably noticed that I’m something of a chocoholic (cocoa connosoier is the polite term). I eat chocolate almost every day of my life. It’s what I do, it’s what I like. Some people watch television, I taste chocolate.

I have one strict acception, though.

I never eat chocolate on Thanksgiving.

Many people believe this is weird. Thanksgiving is the feasting holiday, it is all about eating, and why not eat the thing you love most?

I’ll tell you why: Eating chocolate is a ritual for me. I cleanse my palate beforehand. I take a moment to relax. I often research the chocolate I’m about to try. Eating the actual bar is the fieldwork of passionate research for me, I have never considered my cocoa affinity to be part of feastery.

Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is all about quantity. It is about the plenty, not the acute. The food may be good, but what’s important is that it is en masse and that we eat as much and as often as our neighbors and family. It is a day when gorging is okay. The rest of the year, such a feast might be repulsive, but not when we are giving thanks for….well for being alive I guess, maybe for living in such times when we can afford such feasts and such friendly company. But I refuse to associate my taste for chocolate with such overabundant and joyous gluttany. Besides, I’ve got 364 other days for cocoa, I’ll live without for just one day.

If you’re planning on filling your belly for Thanksgiving, you might want to get a head start on being healthy beforehand, so take a look at these links as somewhere to begin. The vitamin shop is another health blog, and damage control master formula is a new squidoo page about a multivitamin.

Sorry to sound like a redundant old fart, but I just can’t emphasize enough how great chocolate is as an antioxidant. It is mayhap the best antioxidant out there if you consider taste important in terms of getting those antioxidizing nutrients.

And as if chocolate weren’t good enough already, recent studies have shown that chocolate includes a chemical called phenyletylamine, which increases seratonin levels to the brain (i.e. it makes you happy). Finally a chemical way to explain what everyone already knows…chocolate makes you smile!

And finally, this week I’d like to talk a bit about smell. As you may know, there are only four taste buds, while there are thousands of olefactory receptors. This means, when we eat, most of what we are tasting actually comes from what we smell.

Smell is important with any food, and the cocoa bean has as very distinctive smell. Dark chocolate can have even a sour, pungeant odor, but most peoples’ receptors still read this as a pleasant smell.

The danger with smell and chocolate is that most chocolate (especially lighter milk chocolates) absorbs smell. This doesn’t affect the nutritional value of the chocolate, but absorbed smells can ruin the taste. You can work this aspect of chocolate in your favor, so here are a few rules to odorize your chocolate…

1) Don’t store chocolate in the bathroom! Duh. But the same goes for storing it near the washing machine or dishwasher, you don’t want detergent odor in your cocoa.

2) Be wary of the fridge/vegetable combo. Smell your fridge before you store chocolate in it. Many people overcrowd their fridges, leading to rotting vegetables produce at the back of the fridge which leads to a faint unpleasant odor, that is unnoticeable for the most part, but can seap into a good chocolate bar and ruin all that refined flavor.

3) Experiment with the spice rack. Many people store their chocolate on the spice rack, and this can actually add a variety of wonderful subtle tones to the flavor, but there are certain spices to steer clear of. Cinnamon is a great spice and can enhance cocoa flavor, but too much cinnamon can overpower other natural odors contained within the chocolate. A good rule of thumb is, the higher quality the chocolate, the less cinnamon to use in recipes, and the same goes for storing your chocolate near cinnamon. Some other fun spices to store chocolate with are cardamom, mint, chili powder, and for the bold…pipe tobacco!

4) Use flowers. I’ve tried this, and it adds wonderful light tones to a marzipan chocolate. Store the chocolate with rose petals or lavender. Any flower will work, but rose absorbs a bit better. You will actually be able to taste the flower in the chocolate. I find it to be exotic and wonderful.

So, that’s my basic guide to odorizing your chocolate. I should also mention a how to deal with stress website I’ve found recently. It’s pretty good stuff. Check it out when you’re not eating chocolate!

I recently drove to San Francisco to attend a “chocolate festival.” My sister lives in Berkeley, she took me to the Scherfenberger chocolate factory the last time I visited, so I thought this would make a nice sequel.

I was expecting a sampling of fine world chocolates. Perhaps a master formula of belgian dark, or some nice Bolivian blends. The concept of the festival was that you paid $20 for a ticket book, then you hop from chocolate booth to chocolate booth, trading tickets for chocolate samples– better than a carnival!

My sister and I took the tram in on Saturday morning fully expecting the lines to be long for the best chocolates. We walked the final ten blocks to the festival, turned the corner and…

We faced a handful of stands set up in a semi-circle in an ill-traversed part of the tourist area near fisherman’s wharf. There were no dutch, no french, no Bolivian chocolates. There was Hershey’s, Lindt, and Nestles instead. The samples were bite sized junk candies, the kind you give kids for halloween. They sat in jars, the kind of jars you put candies in at halloween. Instead of chocolate connoisours displaying their finest, there were teen employees from the local candy marts.

But hey, at least there were no lines.

On the bright side, I did find a neat vitamin store in the area which led me to find some fun websites including a blog on omega 3 benefits.  

I’m a bit of a dark chocolate snob. I believe milk chocolate dulls the cocoa taste and just adds sugar. But now I may have legitimate reason to turn my nose up at milk chocolate…

Recently dark chocolate has become more popular due to it’s antioxidant properties. I’ve even heard argument that the dark chocolate made from the pure cocoa of certain Bolivian beans may be the best antioxidant out there. Well, apparently, all the antioxidant power of cocoa is negated by addition of milk into chocolate. Check out this report about the powers of dark chocolate compared to milk chocolate.

Regardless, taste comes first for most people in all matters of chocolate, and some people just like milk more than dark. I will admit that a well refined milk, especially if the manufacturers leave cocoa nubs in the mix, can be a wonderful thing. BTW, a nub has the texture of a coffee bean. It’s the actual unprocessed cocoa bean before any cocoa butter has been extracted. They are potent and unsweet and wonderful. Scharfenberger makes an excellent 60%dark chocolate nub bar. 

 

I’m Lyndon Coolidge, and I was born to spread to the word about the powers of cocoa. This blog brings you the latest and greatest chocolate trivia.

There are some great jobs out there. For instance, the guy who rubs body oil on swimsuit models is just about the best job ever, though it very likely doesn’t exist. One job that does exist that fits my version of a fantasy is the bean tester. A bean tester is a person who travels the world in search of the best cocoa bean. There are only twelve actual chocolate factories in America, and each one has a highly paid bean tester.

Cocoa beans grow in tropical climates, so the bean tester spends most of his days in the sunny latitudes, traveling between beaches and jungles, conversing with local cocoa farmers. The main tool of the bean tester is called the Bean Guillotine. It is a small device that chops a cocoa bean in half so the tester can tell how ripe and how rich the cocoa beans are. He also carries with him a simple kit (think easy-bake oven, coffee grinder, and blow dryer) to create actual chocolate from the beans. Once he finds a farm with a good stock, he buys the entire lot and ships it back to the states. Because of this power to make or break a small town, bean testers are often treated as honored guests in the towns they visit. They mingle with the haute culture of elite chocolate connoisseurs and pastry chefs, and they mingle with the most down-to-earth cultures of the field workers and farmers of South America and Africa.

The bean tester isn’t necessarily the artist of the chocolate world, but he is the man the artists depend on.