Sudbury Living - Spring 2008 - (Page 27)

n food BY VICKI GILHULA esearchers at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy, interviewed 153 women between the ages of 24 and 44 and found women who ate chocolate have better sex lives than women who don’t eat the heavenly treat. “Chocolate can have a positive physiological impact on a woman’s sexuality,” noted the study. This may explain something men have known for hundreds of years. Chocolate is the perfect gift for their sweethearts. “Chocolate is better than sex,” is a comment Denise Regaudie often hears from both women and men in her Bouchard St. chocolate shop, Huckleberries. She and Marcia McGregor purchased the shop in May 2006 from the previous owners. And business is good. There are people who don’t like chocolate and others who can take it or leave it, but the majority of us can’t get enough of it. Canadians each eat about 5.4 kilograms of the stuff on average per year. Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa beans come from West Africa. The remaining crops are grown in Asia, South America and the Caribbean. All cacao countries are within 20 degrees north and south of the equator. The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavour. After being roasted and ground, the resulting products are known as chocolate or cocoa. Cocoa was originally cultivated in Central America and Mexico, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. All of the Mesoamerican peoples made nutritious and stimulating bitter chocolate beverages. The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency. The Spanish were introduced to chocolate when they conquered the New World. In 1544, a delegation of Mayans from Guatamala, escorted by Spanish monks, brought a gift of this liquid chocolate drink when they visited King Philip. The Spanish didn’t care for the bitter taste, but added sugar and spices such as cinnamon and cloves to make a more palatable mixture that they considered medicinal. The imported bean was costly, so for more than 100 years, chocolate was reserved for nobility. By the 1700s, the wealthy of Europe were enjoying a thick, oily drink made from cocoa beans. In 1828, Conrad van Houten, a Dutchman, invented a way to press the fat or “butter” out of chocolate. The remaining powder became the key ingredient in the non alcoholic stimulating drink we know now as hot chocolate. A few years later, J.S. Fry of Bristol, England, found a way to mix some of the cocoa butter back into the powder and created the chocolate bar. The Swiss invented milk chocolate in 1876. continued on page 30 R Enjo la ed, umtuous, n inin x rience. A W l Great F O a e Yu ! Ta e O t Availa e. GREAT PLACE TO DINE DINE and DISCOVER Casey’s Cocktails Purchase a $30.00 Casey’s Gift Card this Holiday Season and receive our great new cocktail recipe book! Serving Sudbury for over 25 years Ask about our Starting November 5th, 2007 gift cards Limited time offer. While quantities last. Casey’s is a registered trade-mark of PRC Trademarks Inc. Used under license. © 2007 Prime Restaurants of Canada Inc. 1070 Kingsway, Sudbury 560-6888 TAKE OUT & GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE DAILY Spring 2008 Sudbury Living 27

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Sudbury Living - Spring 2008

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