Chocolate: It's Medicinal

Women know that eating chocolate is therapeutic. (1) Karen Leland writes that the health effects are official:

A recent Italian survey conducted by the Catholic University in Campobasso, found that 6.7 grams of dark chocolate per day (about a half a bar per week) was the ideal amount for a protective effect against inflammation and subsequent cardiovascular disease.

Yep...It's medicinal.

Chocolate Bath, anyone?

Leland goes on to note the passing of a great chocolatier:

...one of the chocolate world's great leaders, Robert Steinberg. Steinberg (61) was co-founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolate and a candy maverick who helped turn the humble cacao bean, into a star of the gourmet food world.

Eat a bit of their dark bar in his honor this weekend; your heart will thank you. (2)

Moonstruck Chocolate Co.

Here in Portland we are blessed to have the Moonstruck Chocolate Co. and their charming chocolate cafes right in our midst. Moonstruck makes luxurious handcrafted, artisan chocolates. On cold days we love to sit in the cafes and sip coffee and hot chocolate with loved ones. When friends visit, we tour the city, often stopping at Powell's Books, Vodoo Doughnuts, Elephant's Deli and Moonstruck. (Then we go hiking to work off all those calories).

Moonstruck chocolates are as beautiful as they are tasty and they make a lovely gift for Valentine's Day. You can order their offerings at their online store. Organic chocolate treats are available.

Chocolate Dieties & Pagan Themed Chocolate Molds:
(update 2/11)

Hecate has kindly reminded me to mention some delights I know well: Chocolate Dieties. Now, that's what I call divine.

This morning I found a Spiral Goddess chocolate mold. This same company offers other designs in their molds, such as Thor's Hammer, a set of ritual tools, triple moons, a pentacle and runes.

Organic and Fair Trade Chocolate:

When buying chocolate, it's important to remember where is comes from and who's life is affected by our buying choices. Here is a guide to Organic and Fair Trade Chocolate from The Daily Green: DG notes

Cocoa powder is derived from cacao seeds that grow in pods on the cacao tree. The tree's botanical name, Theobroma cacao, means "food of the gods," nomenclature with which I wholeheartedly agree. Cocoa "beans" are only called that once they're removed from the tree. What does any of this have to do with the environment? The cacao tree grows in the rainforest. Ideally, cacao trees will be grown on small farms, in the shade, to keep rainforests intact and reduce pesticide use.

[Sia notes: Shade grown is best for birds, as well. Most coffee and chocolate is grown on plantations where the trees have been cut down, destroying habitat needed by songbirds. Please make a conscious choice to buy bird friendly, shade grown coffee and chocolate. ]

Even better is organic cocoa that is also produced according to Fair Trade principles, ensuring that farmers are paid a decent wage for their work and no child labor is involved. In countries like Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa, children are being used like slaves to produce cocoa, with profits going to fund the country's civil war.

Someone You Should Know: Adrienne Fitch-Frankel
(update 2/11)

Ecotopia writes:

Adrienne Fitch-Frankel is Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Cocoa Campaigner. She also campaigns for conflict-free diamonds and was part of the Global Exchange-coordinated coalition for Sweatfree legislation in San Francisco.

Check out the Global Exchange website. They have fair exchange stores in San Francisco, Berkeley and Portland and they offer "reality tours" to over 30 countries.

Making Your Own Chocolate Treats:

The article above and the Scharffen Berger link both list a number of chocolate recipes.

You might also want to read: Tempering Chocolate from Cooking for Engineers.

Have fun,

Sia

P.S. This post is dedicated to my birding buddy Fyrehawk and her Kitchen Diva partner as well as their very special little cat who is recovering from an illness. May you live long and enjoy many years of chocolate and peanuts. We'll be right by your side. Love, SV

Related Links

Scharffen Berger

Related Articles

Give Me Enough Chocolate and I Can Rule the World
(filled with chocolate lore and links)

Medicinal Uses of Chocolate

Chocolate History, Glossary and Cooking Tips

A Nice Cuppa - Song Birds and Shade Grown Coffee

The Case of the Missing Songbirds

Endnotes:

(1) As always, folks, it's wise to practice moderation in all things. For some people, it is possible that chocolate makes depression worse.

(2) There is more than one kind of loss here. The original Scharffen Berger Chocolate factory in Berkeley, a Bay Area landmark, will soon close.

Image: Chocolate Minerva - from Gizmodo's list of chocolate toys

Minerva:

Wikipedia notes that:

The name "Minerva" is likely imported from the Etruscans who called her Menrva. In Etruscan mythology, Menrva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce.

Her name has the "mn-" stem, linked with memory. See Greek "Mnemosyne" (gr. μνημοσύνη) and "mnestis" (gr. μνῆστις): memory, remembrance, recollection. The Romans could have confused her foreign name with their word mens meaning "mind" since one of her aspects as goddess pertained not only to war but also to the intellectual. Minerva is the Roman name for Athena the goddess of Wisdom and Virginity. She is also depicted as an owl.

The patriarchial Roman myths have her springing full grown from the head of Zeus. Earlier myths list her as the daughter of Zeus and the Goddess Metis, an oceanic Goddess, and the first great spouse of Zeus, who was, in fact, his equal. I think it's fair to say that in Menrva, we see the offspring of Mother Ocean and Father Sky. She is said to be the inventor of mathematics, language, poetry, the healing arts, and music. As 'Minerva Medica', she was the goddess of medicine and doctors, warriors, wisdom, commerce, and crafts. Ovid called "The Goddess of a 1,000 works".

All this is probably why the character of Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter books has the first name of Minerva.

Give Me Enough Chocolate And I Can Rule The World

Chocolate......

Now that I have your attention, I would like to remind everyone that tomorrow is International Women's Day. Click here for a list of events in your area.

Why not honor a woman who has inspired you with a bit of fine chocolate on this day? See some truly orgasmic chocolate links below.

Once strengthened, we can go out and promote our radical (?) feminist agenda. Fox News (?) warns us that:

According to it's website, IWD is a "global day connecting all women around the world and inspiring them to achieve their full potential." Back in 1911, the very first IWD was celebrated in order to campaign for such noble ideals as women's right to work, to vote, and to hold public office.

Today, IWD serves to advance radical feminism in the form of promoting pro-abortion and pro-gay rights legislation, ratification of ERA, affirmative action for women, Title IX, government babysitting services, and government wage control, commonly camouflaged as "pay equity" or "comparable worth."

...Even media groups, such as CNN, the BBC, and Aljazeera TV have signed on as sponsors. Tomorrow, over 450 rallies and "events" are planned in 44 different countries across the globe.

"The radical feminists want to remake our laws in order to eradicate everything that is masculine from our culture and create a gender-neutral society," concluded Schlafly. "The United States should seriously reconsider lending its stamp of approval to future IWDs."

Seriously, Phyllis? Human rights is still a radical notion? Who knew?

Does the fact that women are still used as slaves and sex captives not appear on your personal radar?

Emily Maguire writes that:

70 per cent of those living in poverty are female, as are two-thirds of all uneducated children and two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults. Eighty per cent of the approximately 700,000 people trafficked into slavery (including sex slavery) each year are female, and around 130 million women and girls are victims of female genital mutilation. Every year, 500 000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth and 68,000 die as a result of unsafe abortion.

That seems to be a cause that matters.

Meanwhile....

Scientist are trying to trace the origins of the original chocolate tree.

Oh, gods. I want one.

The cacao plant, or Theobroma cacao, evolved in the tropical rainforests of the Americas, but its origins remain something of a mystery. The species has been domesticated for so long that, like corn, it is now quite different from its wild relatives.

Since I can't offer you a tree, I will offer some of my favorite chocolate links:

Moonstruck: On-line store
If you are ever in the Portland area, visit one of their chocolate cafes.

Equal Exchange On-line store: Fair Trade Chocolate, Tea and Coffee
and do check out the link to their article on chocolate & slavery below.

Chocolate Dieties On line store
I'll have the 3/4 pound Green Tara in the dark chocolate, please.

The Chocolate Tree - Based in Edinburgh

Sweet Earth Organic Chocolate

Adults may care to purchase some special chocolate party hats. Check out the viking hat.
(My thanks to the delicious Brownie Points blog for pointing me to this site.)

Where was I? Oh...right:

The original tree may have been lost through human meddling. Typical.

...the fragrant, calorie-rich oils produced by wild Theobroma (the original tree) are what attract trapline bees, which have high energy requirements. But the hairlike structures that might have produced the oils are either vestigial or completely absent in most cacao cultivars. While breeding the plant to produce better chocolate, humans may have inadvertently destroyed the plant's primary means of attracting pollinators.

Efforts are now underway to improve the pollination abilities of modern cocao producing plants. All strength and honor to them. Give women enough chocolate and we can take over the world.

Sia
Links:

Chocolate: The Original Mood Food

The Dark Side of Chocolate: Slavery and Chocolate Production

How To Taste Chocolate

The O'Mamma Organic Report notes that that many Dagoba Organic Chocolate products were recently recalled due to high levels of led.

Recipe for White Chocolate and Pacan Nanaimo bars from the Domestic Goddess blog

Image: Chocolate Minerva - from Gizmodo's list of chocolate toys

Minerva:

Wikipedia notes that: The name "Minerva" is likely imported from the Etruscans who called her Menrva. In Etruscan mythology, Menrva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce.

Her name has the "mn-" stem, linked with memory. See Greek "Mnemosyne" (gr. μνημοσύνη) and "mnestis" (gr. μνῆστις): memory, remembrance, recollection. The Romans could have confused her foreign name with their word mens meaning "mind" since one of her aspects as goddess pertained not only to war but also to the intellectual. Minerva is the Roman name for Athena the goddess of Wisdom and Virginity. She is also depicted as an owl.

The patriarchial Roman myths have her springing full grown from the head of Zeus. Earlier myths list her as the daughter of Zeus and the Goddess Metis, an oceanic Goddess, and the first great spouse of Zeus, who was, in fact, his equal. I think it's fair to say that in Menrva, we see the offspring of Mother Ocean and Father Sky. She is said to be the inventor of mathematics, language, poetry, the healing arts, and music. As 'Minerva Medica', she was the goddess of medicine and doctors, warriors, wisdom, commerce, and crafts. Ovid called "The Goddess of a 1,000 works".

All this is probably why the character of Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter books has the first name of Minerva.