Health Benefits from Chocolate

Eating chocolate is an experience all itself and you're familiar with how pleasing it can be. From the moment you put a piece of chocolate in your mouth to the moment you swallow it, so many sensory experiences transpire. The smelling of beforehand, taking a good chunk in your mouth and enjoying the intricate textures and varying tastes, the rich, yet smooth melted goodness and how it takes over your taste buds, forever leaving you wanting more.
If you're craving more than just irresistible chocolate flavor -maybe an added and substantial amount of health advantages- then chocolate is something you can certainly consume to reap the benefits. It's actually been proven that the ingestion of chocolate on a regular, yet non-excessive basis, is quite good for you. But, it's not the chocolate itself that's healthful, it's what's inside it.
The magical ingredient in chocolate is cocoa. And within cocoa can be found what are called flavonoids, which are known for their active antioxidant capabilities. And in former studies, these antioxidants have been proven to help accomplish many health goals for individuals of all ages such as lessen chances of heart disease, decrease blood pressure, improve circulation and also ward off 'free radical' molecules which are known to cause strokes, heart disease, or even worse, cancer.
Not that you can taste the actual flavonoids in chocolate, but they're no doubt there, usually in one of two kinds , catechins and epicatechins. Catechins, especially, are found in an abundance within cocoa, which can very well save your life, or in the least help you to avoid some serious illnesses; a prevention of heart disease and even, possibly, cancer is viable as is the boosting of your overall immune system, so you can stay in tip-top working, guarded condition. Wow.

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Types of Chocolate

Chocolate liquor (smooth liquid chocolate) is blended in different quantities with cocoa butter to make different types of chocolate. The blends of ingredients showing the highest chocolate quantity first are:

1. Plain dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and sometimes vanilla
2. Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or powdered milk and vanilla
3. White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or powdered milk and vanilla
   

Notice that only white chocolate has no cocoa liquor in it. The only ingredient that is actually from the cacao bean in white chocolate is the fat or cocoa butter which has a very distinct flavor.

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Making Chocolate

Cocoa beans is the main ingredient to make chocolate. The beans come from the inside of cocoa pods. Cocoa farmers harvest the pods by hand, just as they have done for more than a thousand years. After that, the beans are scooped out and left to dry. Then the beans are cleaned and roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground and liquified, resulting in pure chocolate in fluid form. It's called chocolate liquor. It will be processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter.

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Chocolate Story

The story about chocolate begins more than 1000 years ago. Even from many resources, the story begins around 2000 years ago exactly in equatorial Central America, Mexico, where the Mayan Indians held cocoa beans in high regard. Beverage from crushed cocoa beans was first created by Mayans which was enjoyed by royalty and shared at sacred ceremonies. At that time the Mayans thought cocoa beans had some magical powers. They used them in rituals ceremonies and healings by priests. They used cocoa medicinally as a treatment for fever, coughs and even discomfort during pregnancy.
Chocolate story continuous on the next period when the Aztec Empire exists. The Aztec Indians improved upon the recipe sweetening it with vanilla and honey. They called the drink with "xocoatl" meaning bitter water. Chocolate became so highly regarded by the Aztecs that it was used as a form of currency along with gold dust. Known as "the drink of Nobles", it was prepared with meticulous care.
It was Columbus who first brought cocoa beans to Europe from his last voyage to the Caribbean islands in 1502. The King and Queen of Spain,King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, never dreamed how important cocoa beans would become. It remained for Hernando Cortes, the Spanish explorer, to grasp the commercial possibilities of cocoa beans. Europeans got their first real taste of chocolate when Emperor Montezuma offered the explorer Cortez a foaming hot chocolate drink.

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