This Chocolate Day, Unwrap and you will find the tender treasure!

Chocolate is the first luxury. It has so many things wrapped up in it: deliciousness in the moment, childhood memories, and that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good said Mariska Magdolna Hargitay, an American female actor, philanthropist and director.

 Milky. Buttery, caramelly! Mostly melting, sometimes crispy. Chocolate is happiness, wrapped in all shapes and sizes. But where does it come from? Originally, it is the seed of the tropical tree, Theobroma Cacao that produces only 2-3 chocolate bars in one year. Theobromas can live up to 200 years, producing for only 25 years. A cacao tree takes four to five years to produce its first fruit.

How did chocolate come to Europe?

In 1500, while invading Central America for rich metals like gold, and silver some Spanish invaders stumbled across a Cocoa Bean. Pioneered by the Mesoamericans, chocolate originated from Central America. The Intensely aromatic bean was known for its mystique powers. The Aztecs considered chocolates to be a heavenly food gifted to humans by the serpent God, Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl.

The fashionable drink, a symbol of status, was consumed only by the elites including rulers, warriors and priests. For heroic services in war, soldiers were awarded chocolate drinks along with clothes and flowers. Valued more than gold then, the bean was also a form of currency.

The nation then started trading cocoa to regions where it was difficult to grow the bean.

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Chocolates remained unappealing for the Europeans when they arrived in America.

Italian traveller Girolamo Benzoni, when given a chocolate drink as a present, declared it fit for only pigs while Jesuit writer Jose De Acosta coined it as “bubble-like feces”. Many gradually developed a taste for it to remain one among the dignitaries.

The 18th century Industrial Revolution witnessed the mass production of chocolates, followed by the growth of tree plantations. Chocolate drinking by then had emerged in England, Holland, France, Germany and Italy.

According to the book The Biography of Chocolate by Adriana Morganelli (Crabtree publishing co. 2005), the enslaved community served as labourers in the cocoa plantations. Soon the indigenous population began to die due to diseases brought in by the Europeans and slaves from Africa filled up the shortage of labourers. They planted and harvested cacao throughout the Central and Southern regions of America. No wonder this was how the Europeans got the taste of Chocolate.

The world of chocolate changed forever in 1828 with the introduction of the cocoa press by Coenraad Van Houten of Amsterdam. Hoetan’s creation could separate the bean’s natural fat or the cocoa butter. It left behind a powder which could be blended into a drinkable solution or recombined with the cocoa butter to make the solid chocolate that we eat today. It was in 1847 when the world saw the first solid chocolate, produced by the British company J.S. Fry and Sons.

Chocolates existed in a form quite different from what we know today.

Were Chocolates as sweet as now forever? If you can't live without chocolate then consider yourself lucky that you weren't born before the 16th century. Chocolates existed in a form quite different from what we know today. The earliest records tell us that the Cocoa beans were ground, and mixed with chilli peppers and cornmeal to create a drink. Clearly, not as relaxing as a cup of hot cocoa but a bitter, invigorating blend with foam.

Before you say a ‘NO’ to more chocolate brownies or a cup of hot chocolate, remember, chocolates prevent tooth decay. The signature smell induces theta waves in the brain and helps in relaxation. The Journal of Alzheimer’s disease (2016) proved that chocolates are good brain food. Chocolates contain substances like tyramine which stimulate the human brain, acting as a good-mood-food too.

Research(2018) by The World Cocoa Foundation shows people around the world, especially Europeans and Americans consume at least 3 million tons of cocoa beans in a year.

Cocoa beans are rich in phytonutrients that act as antioxidants. They are also rich in iron, copper, magnesium and a lot more. According to the journal-’Nutrients’ study shows people who consumed chocolates more than thrice a week, had lesser heart diseases, strokes and artery-related problems. Chocolate is cheaper than therapy, you don't even need an appointment!

World Chocolate Day Special: To help you make this Chocolates Day sweeter, here’s the simplest recipe of how to bake chocolate brownies at home:

• Take dark chocolate(800gm), and sugar dust(312gm) in two different bowls
• Take 10 eggs and mix it well till lump-free
• Take maida (AP flour) (412gm) in another bowl
• Add elaichi powder(6gm), ginger(6gm), salt(6gm), and baking soda to the maida. Mix these
• Sieve the powdery mixture using a strainer
• Melt the dark chocolate
• Mix sugar dust, eggs, and molten dark chocolate and blend it very well.
• Add butter(80gm) to that and again blend it.
• Keep two trays ready with butter paper on it. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius
• Put the mixture inside the oven
• Garnish it with almonds, cashews, nuts, and raisins according to your taste
• Bake it at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes and your choco-brownie is ready!

Cold Cocoa:

• Take a bar of chocolate and mince it
• Add cocoa powder(2tbs), corn flour(2tbs), milk(1/4cup) in a bowl
• Mix it till smooth
• In a pan, add milk(2 cups) and bring to boil
• Add cocoa mixture to it and cook for 4-5 mins on medium heat
• Add the minced chocolate and stir it till it mixes well
• In a bowl, strain the cocoa mixture to ensure a smooth texture
• Refrigerate it for 2 hours
• Add some ice cubes, and cocoa mixture to a glass
• Garnish it with choco chips or cocoa powder and enjoy chilled!

The views are the author's own.