The Aztecs were whipping up and enjoying their hot chocolate drinks when the Spaniards arrived. They took the cacao beans along with them as they headed home, and started enhancing the flavors by adding milk and sugar.  You can trace the roots of the hot chocolate drink recipe back to that. Shortly thereafter, chocolate became all the rage in European royal places. Special china pots and cups were produced, intended only for drinking hot chocolate. Nowadays, such kitchenware are considered as collectors’ items and can sell for a fortune if they come in a complete set.

Hot chocolate drinks are still enjoyed by the people of Mexico today, and the rest of the world, for that matter. They prepare it with cinnamon and authentic Mexican chocolate. And if you have access to a disk of Mexican chocolate in local Latino markets, then your chocolate drink gets all the more authentic. Otherwise, just opt for unsweetened chocolate.

And among the things that make a real Mexican hot chocolate such a winner is the frothiness. In contemporary times, mixers or immersion blenders are utilized to create froth, but the authentic way to do so is by means of using a whisk called molinillo.

A molinillo is a wooden tool which was invented by the Spaniards in the 17th century in Mexico. The molinillo is held between the palms and rotated by rubbing the palms together. By doing so, you create froth in the drink. Molinillo’s are actually still available even in this day and age. You can look them up and buy them online.

But before anybody was able to come up with the idea of creating the molinillo, they used to create froth by pouring hot chocolate back and forth using two cups. This certain frothing process tends to make hot chocolate cool down, and you wouldn’t want your hot chocolate cold, do you?

Today, frothy chocolate is made using machines. But if authentic Mexican hot chocolate is your thing, a molinillo can always come in handy!

The word “mousse” is a French word which means “foam” or “lather”. A mousse is a certain type of food that incorporates air bubbles to give it an airy texture.  Depending on how you prepare it, it can turn out light and fluffy or creamy and thick.

It made its way into the culinary world in the 18th century which was the period when chefs in Europe, especially in France, learned about the frothing power of eggs. A French writer Menon recorded the recipes which mostly involved different kinds of dishes from fish to vegetables. It didn’t take too long until the infamous 19th century French painter and cook Henri de Toulouse came up with the idea of mixing in chocolate with mousse.  He originally called it “chocolate mayonnaise”, which we now know by the more appealing name “chocolate mousse”.

In the United States, the earliest printed references to chocolate mousse supposedly come from a Food Exposition which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1892.

Mousse, as we know it today, is yielded by the introduction of egg whites. The invention of electric mixers definitely made life easier, as doing the foaming process by hand is downright agonizing and it’s just not as effective.

Nowadays, there are endless possibilities with regard to working with chocolate mousse. Some recipes even have fancy liqueurs in them,   but the main ingredients stay the same, namely chocolate, egg whites, and sugar.

However you plan on presenting your chocolate mousse, as with any other recipe, it all boils down to the quality of ingredients you use. Opt for only the finest ones and not just anything you can get your hands on. Your chocolate mousse is only as good as your chocolate, or so they say. So you better get the best chocolate you can.

New Year means new anything. Case in point: new world record.

In Ooty,  a hilly tourist town in Tamil Nadu India, a chocolatier, named Fazloor Rahman, of NPS Supermarket, has set a new world record for the longest home-made milk chocolate bar.  The record-setting bar measures 18 meters in length and 0.75 meter in width.  That beats the previous record made last March by an Italian confectionary which measured 14.87 meters long and 0.75 meter wide.

“We wanted to do something novel for this New Year thus we came up with this idea,” said Rahman. “We have already staked our claim for an entry in the Limca Book of Records and in the process for getting listed in Guinness Book of World records, is underway,” he added.

The chocolate confectionary has made this awe-inducing creation using 400 kgs of ingredients, including cocoa and milk. And according to Rahman, it took three days to complete this go-getting task, and about ten people worked to finish it.

It was on display for all the tourists, as well as locals, to see and get awestruck in Hotel Charing Cross last December 31 and January 1. Furthermore, posters and pictures that portrayed the distinctiveness and unique characteristics of chocolates were also on display along with the chocolate bar.

It’s almost always compelling to set yourself for something new every start of the year, whether it’s a world record, or a personal record you want to pride yourself in. Make it a point to have something meaningful to look forward to this year.

Happy New Year, chocoholic!

The first queen was Anne of Austria who married Louis XIII. When the king died, she became regent and declared her immense love of chocolate. She was even given a personal chocolatier!

The second queen who had extreme love of chocolate was Maria Theresa of Austria who married Louis XIV. It is said that she only had two passions in life… the king, and you guessed right, chocolate. And according to the king, chocolate tricks hunger but does not fill the stomach.

After Maria Theresa of Austria died, Louis XIV married Madame de Maintenon and she laid down the order to serve chocolate at feasts and celebrations.

David Chaillou was the first official chocolate maker in France during the 16^th century. Vendors of soft drinks were then allowed to sell drinking chocolate. In 1800, chocolate became all the rage that more and more people engaged themselves in the chocolate sector, consumers, and traders, among many others.

The mistresses of Louis XV were also huge fans of chocolate. Madame de Pompadour used it as an aphrodisiac to treat her sexual dysfunctions. Reportedly, the king’s remark was that she was “a cold fish.”  On the other hand, Madame du Barry, being nymphomaniacal, gave chocolate to her lovers so they could keep up with her almost unappeasable lust.

The circle of queens went on, and then came Marie-Antoinette who married Louis XVI. She originated from Austria along with her own personal chocolatier. The chocolate maker usually prepared chocolate with sugar and vanilla, but there were other more intricate recipes such as chocolate mixed with an orchid bulb for strength, chocolate with sweet almond milk to aid digestion, or chocolate with orange blossom to calm the nerves.

Yep, even several hundred years ago, chocolate was such a delight that royalties themselves couldn’t get enough of it!

Does the word ‘Inquisition’ ring your bell? If not, let me shed some light. The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis (inquiry on heretical perversity), depicts religious overkill, torture, and intolerance. It was the fight against heresy by the Roman Catholic Church.

What certain behavior connects such disheartening event to chocolate, you may ask. Well, it was the act of drinking chocolate alone while attending an event. As morbid as it may sound, there were even stories wherein Charles II, King of Spain, drank chocolate while witnessing Inquisition victims being killed.

Inquisition documents even recognized some activities of chocolate merchants that are involved in anti-Christian behavior and actions, chocolate was also used in seduction and witchcraft. Those documents also presented how people turned against each other, deliberately or inadvertently.

Many of the people in those times were accused of using chocolate in “non-Christian” ways. Some chocolate makers were denounced for being observant Jews.

Today, chocolate is almost synonymous to anything cheery. Let bygones be bygones, it’s a thing of the past! That was quite a transition though.

The earliest Aztecs highly thought of the cacao plant. They considered it as a source of strength and wealth and Quetzalcoatl was said to be its guardian which explains why cacao beans were used as their form of currency.

The Aztecs were among the first ones to work with cacao beans. However, they initially didn’t use this for any culinary purpose whatsoever. They only developed interest in its edibility after observing certain animals, particularly monkeys. This is why only the pulp of the cacao tree was used at first, only after a while did they start utilizing the beans.

According to myths, since Quetzalcoatl left the Aztec empire, people have been waiting for his comeback. While at it, they gave offerings of cocoa beans and chocolate drink. Because of their high hopes, when they saw a ship heading towards their shores, they immediately thought it was Quetzalcoatl. The Europeans took this vulnerability as a chance to easily invade their lands, and were successful at it.

Chocolate’s history is indeed covered in legends and myths, not to mention depressing stories. It’s just amusing that chocolate is treasured so much that it has a guardian. Even I myself guard my box of chocolates with my life. Haha!

What many people don’t know is that, like the most renowned inventions, these treats were just accidentally created by Ruth Graves Wakefield back in 1933. Wakefield was the proprietor of the Toll House Inn, which was located on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts. It was a famed place then to get some scrumptious home-cooked meals. Ruth’s strategy to provide her patrons an additional serving of entrées for them to take home, along with her homemade cookies as dessert, made the inn all the more popular.

One day, Wakefield was preparing one of her favorite recipes, Butter Drop Do cookies. She commonly made the recipe using bakers’ chocolate, but she realized she had run out of it and only had Nestle semi sweet chocolate on hand. She then thought of utilizing it so she mixed it into the batter thinking it would melt and blend well. The chocolate pieces certainly did not mix like the bakers’ chocolate. Instead, it held its shape and softened to a creamy texture, and the rest is chocolate chip history.

Ruth and Nestle came up with an agreement that would allow Nestle to print the “Toll House Cookie” recipe on its packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolates.

During World War II, Nestle Toll House Cookies were sent to GI’s from Massachusetts who would then distribute them to other American soldiers. This caused some soldiers to write home and ask for Nestle Toll House cookies, which made the cookies all the rage.

However, the history of chocolate chip cookies has many different versions. One of which states that George Boucher, together with his daughter Carol Cavanagh, worked at the Toll House inn. According to Boucher, some Nestle chocolate bars by the shelf were dislodged and fell right off into a mixer that was currently creating a batch of cookie dough, forming little chunks of chocolate in the mix. Boucher claims Wakefield wanted to trash the cookie dough mixture, but he wanted to keep it and bake it.

These cookies are still tremendously well-liked even to this day in spite of how they originated, and we can assume this will hold true for quite a stretch of time.

He then teamed up with Henry Nestle, a manufacturer of condensed milk. They came up with the idea of adding condensed milk to chocolate liquor which is a nonalcoholic smooth, thick, and liquid form of chocolate. It is the ground or melted state of the nib of the cacao bean, the purest form of chocolate. Milk chocolate became famous and well-loved by consumers by the 1900’s, and still holds true today.

There is an array of milk chocolate forms. Hot cocoa is among the list, it is a cocoa powder mixed with milk and sugar and heated until hot and smooth. This infamous beverage never failed to make people warm and give a sense of comfort. Also included in the list are liquid milk products, powdered milk products, granule and of course, chocolate bars. One can the goodness of milk chocolate hot or cold, hard or soft, practically any way you want.

Chocolate has people under its spell that basically nobody can break, at least not anytime soon. It is so special to consumers that it has become 2011’s number 1 specialty food, as what has been stated in one of the previous blog posts. And milk chocolate is the most popular with the masses; it is preferred by approximately 80% of the consumers.

If you’re creating a chocolate basket as a gift without knowing the personal preferences of the one you’re planning on giving it to, you can never go wrong if it is filled with milk chocolate treats!

“Chocolate: Around the World”, a smash hit exhibit which sold more than 360,000 tickets in its first Field run in the year 2002 is back not only to entertain you, but also give you juicy and interesting information.

In the past nine years, “Chocolate” has already been to 22 other American museums and will go international when its present Field run is done in January, said the Field president and chief executive officer, John McCarter.

“Chocolate” is a combination of both the Field’s focus on anthropology as well as natural history and its attention to the origins of cacao beans and the role chocolate played in the past centuries. “This is one of the great combination stories,” McCarter said.

From the modest examples of cacao beans to a vintage chocolate mold with the shape of a rabbit driving a scooter, “Chocolate” aspires to present a food that Americans love dearly.

One of the “Chocolate” exhibition keepers, Gary Feinman, said that visitors were interested as much toward the exhibit’s story as the subject matter. “Everybody loves chocolate,” Feinman said. “The story is great, and the exhibits are about stories.”

The exhibit is almost untouched since it first premiered at the Field, very little has changed. Among the new items featured are excavated ceramic vessels in which chocolate residue was found. This aids in explaining how chocolate was used.

There is also information about the disturbing situation at African cocoa farms. “There are issues with child labor, the labor conditions,” Feinman said. “There are still issues but I think there’s more consciousness about some of the problems.”

Try visiting there and have a shot at kicking your love of chocolate up a notch.

-Through Jan. 8 (9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day but Christmas)
-The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
-The exhibit is included in the Discovery and All-Access passes, $22-$29 for adults, $18-$24 for seniors and students with identification, and $15-$20 for ages 4 to 11.
-(312) 922-9410; fieldmuseum.org

Brownies can either be “cake-style” or “fudge-style”. Cake-style is that with the consistency of a cake, only richer and denser. On the other hand, fudge-style is more like, er, fudge than cake. It is the richer, denser, and creamier version of the brownie. What determines the style of brownie is the ratio of flour to chocolate and/or cocoa.

I hate to state the obvious but it’s apparent brownie derived its name from its dark brown color. But just like almost any food, the origin of the “brownie” is covered in myth. One of the legends told is that a chef added melted chocolate to biscuits by mistake. Another one states that a cook was baking a cake but didn’t have enough flour and baked it anyway, thus, making a brownie.

The most famous legend, however, says a housewife in Bangor, Maine, who was making a chocolate cake, failed to add baking powder. When the cake didn’t rise, she just cut it and served pieces of the flat cake.

Several tales indicate that the first known published recipe appeared in the Sears, Roebuck Catalogue in 1897, but that was a recipe for a molasses candy only called brownies. Nowadays, brownies are baked with either cocoa or melted chocolate or a combination of both.

Although the first few brownie recipes were published and modification to it started in the beginning of the 20th century, it wasn’t until the 1920s that brownies became a darling in the department of baked chocolate treats, and it never ceased.