"The greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and Shakespeare... neither of them knew chocolate"
Susan Boynton- American humorist, songwriter, director, music producer, children's author and illustrator
Back in High school, I remember my teacher asked us to do a group project. We had to make a newspaper or a scrapbook and choose our own topic. I don't remember why but me and my team chose Mexico. When studying about the Aztecs and Mayan culture, I learned about the origins of chocolate.
*Etymologists trace the origin of the word "chocolate" to the Aztec word "xocoatl," which referred to a bitter drink brewed from cacao beans. The Latin name for the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, means "food of the gods."* ( quoted from Smithsonian magazine). The Aztecs believed that the cacao seeds were a gift from Quetzalcoatl, the god of wisdom.
*Sweetened chocolate didn't appear until Europeans discovered the Americas and sampled the native cuisine. Legend has it that the Aztec king Montezuma welcomed the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a banquet that included drinking chocolate, having tragically mistaken him for a reincarnated deity instead of a conquering invader. Chocolate didn't suit the foreigners' tastebuds at first –one described it in his writings as "a bitter drink for pigs" – but once mixed with honey or cane sugar, it quickly became popular throughout Spain. * ( Smithsonian magazine)
A Dutch botanist in Jamaica decided to add milk to chocolate paving the way to the creation of the modern day treat we now enjoy.
Here are my Top 10 all time favorite chocolates:
Paries- Discovered by my husband while we were on a road trip in Biarritz . One of the best I've ever had. https://www.paries.fr/content/18-notre-histoire
Patrick Roger- I feel he is the best chocolate sculptor out there
Royce- what happens when Japanese craftmanship is combined with food of the gods? It is heavenly.
Debauve and Gallais- they treat chocolate like Gollum's "my precious"
La Maison du Chocolat- I have yet to meet a human who does not like chocolates from this house
Hany- When you mix high-grade Philippine peanuts with chocolate and mix them with sugar and powdered milk for the price of peanuts. This is the cheapest on my list.
Toblerone- This over a 100 year old chocolate is named after it's founder Theodore Tobler and Turrone , the Italian name for nougat. It's famous triangle shape does not represent a Swiss mountain but Dancer Folies de Bergeres, a cabaret music hall in Paris
Cadburry creme egg- the original recipe of chocolate shell filled with sweet white and
yellow filling was perfect but ruined secondary to the controversial decision to change the rich milk chocolate to a cheaper substitute.
Snickers - the last but definitely not the least on my list. Snickers was actually named after the favorite horse of the Mars family. No matter how many artisan chocolates I find, good old Snickers will always do the trick.
