I’m very happy to announce that my second blog here at b5 has officially launched on the Home and Dining channel! The Food Bowl is all about pets – cats and dogs, hamsters and rats and everything in between!

Now, I’ll make this chocolate related by telling you this: Do not mix chocolate and pets. There!

Also! Jennifer from Offbeat Homes also launched a new blog this weekend: Treehugging Family. Make sure you check her out as well!

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

- The botanical name for the cacao tree is “Theobroma Cacao” which means “the food of the Gods”. Cacao trees have also been discovered in Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific.

- Inside of the green pods are purple seeds surrounded by white cushiony pulp. Chocolate is made from the purple seeds, more commonly known as cacao beans. The white pulp can be eaten but doesn’t taste like chocolate — according to Market Manila they taste like a fruit called mangosteen.

- The Mayan Indians were the first known group of individuals to utilize the cacao bean: They traded the beans for jade, cloth, and feathers, and they ground up cacao beans with chili peppers to create a new beverage.

- The Aztecs also created a cold beverage they called Chocolatl by combining the cacoa powder with chile water, vanilla, flowers, and honey. They also used the beans as a form of money. In 1502, not knowing what or how valuable they were, Christopher Columbus dumped an entire canoe of beans overboard to lighten his load. He later found out how valuable they were after one was dropped by a sailor and then reverently picked up by members of the tribe. Columbus brought chests of them back to Spain but the Spanish king was not convinced of their worth.

- 20 years after Columbus, Hernando Cortez also brought back chests of beans to Europe and was able to popularize them among the people, who developed a taste for them. “The Dutch, English, and French started growing cacao in their own colonies. In England, teahouses became chocolate houses. At first, sugar cost so much that the drink was expensive. Than a Spanish chef substituted chili for sugar and then even ordinary people could afford a hot chocolate.”

Huge thanks again to Jennifer!

Post from: Chocolate Bytes