Chocolate

[moi621 (imported)]

Do YOU here the siren, Chocolate.

I do.

I'm a chocoholic. It seems I have some very ancient company.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/201 ... toriccivil izations

"Roughly 1,000 years ago, residents of pueblos in the American southwest appear to have had an appetite for imported chocolate, according to new research. The finding, based on chemical traces found in clay pots, is evidence of a strong connection between the southwestern puebloans and the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. . ."

Lately I have tried some of the spiced chocolate.

Applewood smoked bacon Dark chocolate is not so bacony. A cute idea of combining two of the most perfect foods in the world.

Wasabe/cooked sesame seeds/ginger was good but the best of all seem to be the Chili and chocolate combinations. Lindt recommended as really better then the specialty brands. The later have a higher melt point and stay stiffer in the mouth.

For ice cream it is still cheap Rocky Road.

Does anyone else here to call of Chocolate?

If you would like to send me some of your fav. PM me for address.

True White or dark only, milk is like why bother and something to drink with chocolate cake.

Moi

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Yes moi, I hear the call of chocolate. Unfortunately,being a diabetic, I deny myself chocolate like women deny me sex - heh heh

The Aztecs were very fond of chocolate as well. They enjoyed in a chocolate drink daily but we probably wouldn't have liked it. It had no sugar in it.

[transward (imported)]

The combination of chocolate and chilies is inspired and goes back to the Aztecs. My friend Purple Mark, (http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/threadco ... ls_all.php) is a master Chocolatier. He makes a habanero chocolate truffle to die for. Habaneros are notorius for a delayed heat, and the anticipation between the creaminess of the chocolate and the delayed heat of the chilis is divine. Closest thing I know to the rush of injectable drugs.

Transward

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

I made chocolate pudding today. Probably close to 50% cocoa content. Smooth creamy just on the edge of bitter, served with whipped cream on top to calm it down.

[tugon (imported)]

Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure

Dark chocolate -- not white chocolate -- lowers high blood pressure, say Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany. Their report appears in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

But that's no license to go on a chocolate binge. Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things.

Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate -- but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk -- is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.

"Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate ... and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate."

Translation: Say "Dark, please," when ordering at the chocolate counter. Don't even think of washing it down with milk. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble

As a diabetic the darker the chocolate the lower the sugar.

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

I absolutely love chocolate. Eat far too much.

I only really like dark chocolate, but will eat milk if it's all I can find.

I always have a bag of dark chocolate Hersheys Chocolate Chips in the house for snacking; a handfull when I have a craving is plenty. The ones here (in Canada) have lots of 'cocoa mass' and "chocolate liquer" and cocoa butter, but watch out in the USA; some Hershey products there no longer contain any of the true chocolate fats.

White chocolate... is that even truly 'cocolate'? I can't stand the stuff, tastes too artificially creamy.

I eat and enjoy normal chocolate bars (Coffee Crisp, Hershey Almonds, and Cuban Lunch are three favorites) but as far as "Fine Chocolates" are concerned, I'm a hopeless snob.

Bernard Callebault are the absolute most incredible chocolate high I've experienced. Find them here; http://www.bernardcallebaut.com . Expensive, but worth every hand-crafted, fresh REAL ingredient bite. It's almost impossible to get their chocolate covered cherries at Christmas but I enter my name on the list every year; only got them twice. The little chocolates work out to around 1.50 each. This guys products will RUIN you for any of the 'normal' christmas- or easter-time chocolates; beware!

Also, Roger's Chocolates out of British Columbia are very good; not as good as Bernards, but damn close. Roger's has supplied the British royalty with chocolates for years.

[A-1 (imported)]

Is Chocolate a substitute for SEX? -- Yes! (http://www.sciencemusings.com/2005/03/c ... -fool.html)

Chocolate fool

The heart-shaped box of chocolates I got for Valentine's Day is long empty. Now I'm waiting expectantly for Easter, in hope that I can cadge a few chocolate eggs from the grandkids.

We chocoholics have no shame when it comes to our favorite form of substance abuse.

We know who we are. And we know what we want for holidays. Not cards. Not apparel. Not even flowers.

We'll take C6H5(CH2)2NH2.

Or whatever it is in chocolate that gives us that chocolate buzz.

It's not the taste or smell that turns us on, although that may be part of it. No, it's something else in chocolate that accounts for our addiction. Something dangerously chemical that works its magic in some primal corner of the brain. Something, well -- chocolately.

It may have to do with sex. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine -- the chemical whose molecular formula appears above. The stuff is a stimulant. It pumps up the blood pressure, sets the heart fluttering, heightens sensation. A kind of mini sexual climax.

The thrill of chocolate, like the thrill of sex, may be partly a matter of conditioning. Chocolate has a forbidden aura about it. It is perceived as naughty, decadent, morally delinquent. Purveyors of chocolate know how to play upon the sexual connection. They tease us with sensual images, lush colors, whispered enticements. They want us to believe that the famous lady from Coventry prepared for her risque ride by nibbling Godiva Chocolates.

Advertising may be part of chocolate's mystique, but don't dismiss the C6H5(CH2)2NH2.

The brain is a chemical machine. Certain chemicals modify neural circuits. They intrude themselves into the busy crannies where neurons exchange signals. They suppress or excite the crackle of electrochemical activity that makes the mind work. They quell psychotic behaviors, or set the mind reeling into hallucination.

And, apparently, they inspire chocoholics to wolf down embarrassing quantities of the brown stuff.

Call it self-medication. Call it psychoexperimentation. Call it the love-fool's way of getting high. Call it whatever you want, but give us chocolate.

There are lively chemicals in chocolate besides phenylethylamine. There's theobromine, a stimulant closely related to caffeine, and methylxanthine, another turn-on.

Theobromine, by the way, takes its name from the plant Theobroma cacao, whose fermented seeds supply us with chocolate. The plant was undoubtedly named by a chocoholic botanist: theobroma is Greek for "food of the gods."

"Chocolate" itself has an Aztec origin. The Aztecs had a godlike appreciation for xocolatl, as they called it. It is said to have been the aphrodisiac of choice for nobles at the Aztec court, who presumably plied their partners with gobs of fermented xocolatl seeds on every gift-giving occasion.

You don't need a degree in biochemistry to recognize a drug that does pleasant things in the brain. The astonishing thing is, all of the stimulating ingredients of chocolate, like other chemicals that enliven or sedate the brain, are made of just four kinds of atoms -- hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen -- packaged in molecules of different shape.

It's the shape that's the key. Molecules achieve their effects by working like keys in locks. A molecule with the right shape will lock or unlock activity in the brain. The shape of theobromine, for example, resembles the tail of the energy-supply molecule ATP, one of the most important molecules in living things. This similarity of shape presumably allows theobromine to turn a key in some secret lock, causing neurons to spit and sputter, tricking the body into a chocolate fit.

Phenylethylamine, chocolate's sex-substitute, has a shape that closely resembles the body's own norepinephine and dopamine, molecules that transmit signals between neurons in the brain. A bite of chocolate contains only a few dozen milligrams of phenylethylamine, but those sneaky molecules seem to have no trouble making their way to the parts of the brain that cause us to be moody, lovesick, and prone to depression. A chocolate binge may not be as good as sex at alleviating these melancholy afflictions, but it helps.

Next week's holiday will provide another socially-acceptable license to stuff my brains with whatever chemicals are the secret ingredients of chocolate. In the meantime, I'll be more discrete. I'll hide my Cadbury bars behind the books in the bookcase to keep them away from my wife. I'll snitch chocolate chips from the bag in the pantry that is reserved for making cookies. I'll pour more chocolate sauce than is really proper onto that dish of chocolate ice cream.

And wait for Easter when I can nibble to my heart's content on chocolate eggs and bunnies.

[A-1 (imported)]

Is chocolate a substitute for SEX? -- NO! (http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... tml?cat=41)

Can Chocolate Substitute for Sex?

Many women are addicted to it. It can be creamy, smooth and taste sensational. The taste of chocolate is one that many think cannot be compared. It can make a person feel like all the desires in the world are gone. From the time when it touches your lips, to the moment it goes down your throat. But, can the sweet Taste of chocolate can be as satisfying as sex? Or even more so?

When thinking of this question, I thought to try to test it out for myself. I wanted to know if this could be true. I will admit I love chocolate, I love everything about it and it does satisfy me when I am craving something sweet. So why not try it out to see if milk chocolate can please me in a way like sex can.

My experiment started last week. My husband and I have a great sex life, about 3-4 days a week. So, in my experiment I wanted to find out if I could use chocolate as a sexual outlet. One Monday night, my husband and I were about to get into some sexual foreplay, when I decided to turn down his sexual advances and get a piece of dark chocolate out of the freezer. He didn't know what I was trying to do. So my husband just turned over, said a few choice words and went to sleep. I opened up the wrapper and took my first bite. It was great, I didn't think I would feel as pleased as I did but I was and I didn't really crave intercourse that night. I was ultimately content with eating my chocolate bar and not being intimate.

The next night was basically the same, But this time I had to tell my husband what I was trying to do. Can chocolate give me as much pleasure as sex can? He laughed it off and agreed to go along with the plan. So, I went for my chocolate bar in the kitchen, it was milk chocolate with peanuts this time. Each bite melted in my mouth and I felt a sense of pleasure from it. I was once again content without intercourse, but with my chocolate.

Well, after about three days of trying using chocolate in the place of sex, I was getting bored with trying to just satisfy my sexual needs with a bar of chocolate. As delicious as each bite was, the fact of the matter is that it couldn't do for me what my husband could. I loved it but, it didn't love me back, in fact it just gave me something that I know I didn't need, the extra calories. I came to the conclusion that no matter how good chocolate is, and makes you feel when you eat it; it cannot and will not ever make you feel the way being intimate with another person makes you feel. Sex is intense, for some, and can be a distinct connection between the persons involved. While eating chocolate gives your tastebud great pleasure, and makes you feel satisfied temporarily, it will not satisfy you're long-term and give you that connection we get from great sexual intercourse.

[A-1 (imported)]

...and so the argument rages on...

....but you would have thought that the MAN would say NO and the WOMAN would say YES!...

Hmmm... I would like to meet this woman... Yes, I do believe that I would....

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

I fail to see any corelation between sex and chocolate except for that one time I drizzled chocolate syrup on my friend's tummy and crotch and licked it off.

I couldn't decide if the chocolate flavor added to the experience, or if it just masked (and therefor ruined) the taste of his skin.