Chocolate: Like Nothing Else

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” — Charles M. Schulz, spoken by Lucy in Peanuts “Then the great and good God defiantly strode from heaven. And quietly planted his tree.” — The Mayan ka'kau (cacao) origin myth

When we were dreaming up Velvet Honey flavors one possibility interested me above all else–chocolate. Chocolate doesn’t just taste good. It tastes good like nothing else.

Our Chocolate Dream Velvet Honey is a buttery thick spoonful. Chocolate melts a bit below body temperature. Velvet honey melts a bit above body temperature. Melting points close to body temperature mean that Chocolate Dream softens on the tongue to reveal a cascading kaleidoscope of flavors. It’s subtly earthy and bitter. It’s sweet. But the sweetness is a vessel for a slight spice, hints of something adjacent to licorice and the aweing richness of chocolate.

When making a product there are innumerable decisions that affect product quality. The problem is that it's easy to hide the lesser decision. Multinational companies buy chocolate from exploitative agriculture because it’s cheaper. Besides being wrong, this leads to a lesser product.

Chocolate from kinder agriculture tastes better. If you’re okay with treating people poorly you’re probably okay with other sad things too. Our cacao is cold-pressed. It’s a slower process that costs more, but it tastes better. Cold-press chocolate has a more nuanced scent and taste. It has a silkier feel. Heat is the fastest way to process cacao, but it can alter or eliminate subtle flavors and scents.

Chocolate is delicious when eaten in ignorance of its remarkable history, botany and chemistry. But knowing something more intimately opens the possibility for a grander appreciation, even reverence. In that spirit, let’s explore the space of all things chocolate.

The godfather of taxonomy–the classification of living things–is a Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus. Scientific names are usually rather dull and formulaic. The scientific name for the house cat is Felis catus, meaning “cat cat.” Not so with chocolate. Godfather Linnaeus gave chocolate a fitting name–Theobroma cacao, “food of the gods.” There are reasons for this…

Chocolate affects your mind in some wild ways.

Scientists call phenylethylamine the "love molecule." Chocolate is a rich source. When you eat chocolate, phenylethylamine triggers your brain to release dopamine and norepinephrine, the same neurotransmitters that flood your brain when falling in love. Yup, chocolate approximates that.

Chocolate contains anandamide, named after the Sanskrit word ānanda. Ānanda is a state of virtuous serenity that can be experienced within the cycle of existence. It’s like nirvana for this world. Anandamide binds to the same brain receptors as cannabis but not to the same degree, which explains why good chocolate can make you feel so relaxed and content.

The essential amino acid tryptophan is a precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin.Tryptophan regulates everything from mood to sleep to digestion.

Now for the other part: chocolate's flavanols and antioxidants can improve blood flow and protect your cells from damage. But, in the spirit of truth and care for you, the sugar and fat common in chocolate can restrict blood flow and increase cellular damage when you go overboard. Moderation, friends.

If we love chocolate, let’s imagine chocolate’s Eden to appreciate the naturalistic insight of the natives who cultivated chocolate from a funny understory tree to “food of the gods.”

Before Theobroma cacao was anointed “food of the gods,” indeed, thousands of years before humans began systematically classifying living things, wild cacao trees were spread throughout the Upper Amazon Basin, a cradle of equatorial biodiversity through Ecuador, Peru, Columbia, and Brazil.

Genetic and archaeological evidence suggests the Mayo-Chinchipe people of the Andean foothills in what is now southern Ecuador were the first to domesticate cacao over 5,000 years ago.

Early farmers selected wild cacao for its sweet, rich flavorful pulp rather than the bitter seeds we now use for chocolate. The process of selecting a plant or animal for desired traits is called domestication. The selection of cacao enlarged the fruit, the alien-looking pods we now recognize as a chocolate.

Over the millenia, domesticated cacao spread to other native peoples. Cacao gained culinary, cultural, and ceremonial meaning among the Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec peoples. By 2000 BCE, the Olmec were selecting cacao for the seeds, from which we make chocolate.

The Maya people developed advanced agricultural systems for cultivating, fermenting, drying, roasting and grinding ka'kau beans (the modern cacao comes from the Mayan ka'kau.) They used ka'kau in a bitter ceremonial drink, xocolātl. Xocolātl was a bitter brew of ka'kau, water, vanilla, and chili pepper. Annatto made it a vivid red. The Maya held xocolātl imparted strength, vitality, and courage.

For the Maya, ka'kau was a sacred plant gifted by a benevolent god, Kukulkan. In Mayan mythology Kukulkan is a feathered serpent who uplifts humans with learning, creation, and forbearance uncommon among the wrathful gods. In the origin myth of ka'kau, Kukulkan looked upon humans from heaven. He pitied them in their wretched struggle. Defying the other gods, Kukulkan stole ka'kau from the heavens, planted it on earth and taught the first humans to cultivate it.

When the Conquistadors commenced their atrocities upon the native peoples of America, they found the bitterness of xocolātl distasteful (The modern “chocolate” comes from the Spanish butchering pronunciation of xocolātl.) Cacao became a worldwide culinary infatuation with the addition of sugar and milk. People spanning the globe delight in mixing chocolate with all manner of foods, from fruit and spices to insects.

How to use Chocolate Dream Velvet Honey? You tell me. The enjoyment of chocolate is a tradition of finding ever more culinary applications.