Copyright © Summersdale Publishers Ltd 2004 No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language, without the written permission of the publisher Summersdale Publishers Ltd 46 West Street Chichester West Sussex PO19 1RP UK www.summersdale.com Printed and bound in Great Britain ISBN 84024 387 Cover photo: Michael Pohuski/FoodPix/Getty Images Contents Choco-Chronicle Top-of-the-Chocs 12 Chocotionary 17 Choco-Love 25 Choco-Lust 29 Easter Eggs .33 Truffle Trivia 36 A Choco Party 43 Choc-Cook 53 Choco-Horoscopes 74 Top-Choco-Tips 82 ‘Everyone has a price… mine is chocolate.’ Unknown Choco-Chronicle ‘In the beginning God created chocolate and he saw that it was good Then He separated the light from the dark and saw that it was better.’ Unknown Once upon a time there was a small but perfectly formed cacao bean Its posh name was (and indeed still is) Theobroma Cacao, which means ‘food of the gods’ The Maya people were the first to twig to this amazing little bean over 1500 years ago They believed it possessed awesome powers and used it in worship rituals The Aztecs also held the cacao bean in similar esteem and associated it with their god, Quetzalcoatl Both cultures used the beans as currency, and also as the basis of a brew that they believed would imbue them with power and wisdom For the Europeans, though, it wasn’t until the Spaniard Christopher Columbus went on his travels in the sixteenth century that the bean’s properties began to become known Columbus returned to Spain from his journeys of discovery to the Americas, and among the gifts he presented to the King and Queen was the precious cacao bean This wee bean was to take the Western World by storm, inciting a passion for chocolate that people were only too happy to embrace Though the Spanish invented a sweet hot chocolate drink, France really caught on to the chocolate frenzy around 1643 and from that point onward the drink was very fashionable in the Court of Louis XIV Some believe that chocolate has aphrodisiac properties and, true or not, it was chocolate’s reputation as sugary Viagra that made it extremely popular in Paris Ooh la la! In 1657 chocolate was finally available in Britain A Frenchman opened the first chocolate house in London but, because chocolate was considered a luxury item, it was only the upper classes that got their hands on it Chocolate quickly became seen as a cure-all, and doctors began recommending chocolate for nearly every malady – including weight loss! This mass popularity meant that eventually prices fell and chocolate houses popped up all over the country and by 1700 they were as common as cafés are today By the nineteenth century the British and Americans were adding milk to their chocolate drinks and cocoa to their cakes This led to the creation of solid chocolate bars by the likes of J S Fry and Sons of 10 Top-Choco-Tips 82 If chocolate starts to melt in your hands then you are eating it too slowly 83 Chocolate-covered raisins count as fruit Eat as many as you like 84 The Problem: How to prevent your chocolate melting in a journey home from the supermarket on a hot day in a hot car? The Solution: Eat it all in the car park 85 Dieters: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal This will take the edge off your hunger and you’ll eat less 86 A box of chocolates will provide your calorie intake for the day in one neat package 87 If you can’t eat all your chocolate then it is possible to store it in the freezer… but if you can’t eat all your chocolate, what’s wrong with you? 88 If you are trying to lose weight, store your chocolate on top of the fridge – calories are afraid of heights and will jump out of the chocolate to save themselves 89 A balanced diet consists of equal amounts of dark and white chocolate 90 There are many preservatives in chocolate – they make you look younger 91 Remember: Money talks Chocolate sings 92 ‘Put “eat chocolate” at the top of your list of things to for the day That way, at least you’ll get one thing done.’ Unknown 93 OTHER TITLES FROM SUMMERSDALE The Little Book of Love Poetry 84024 395 £4.99 Hardback 110 x 110 mm, 96 pages From the heartfelt poetry of Shelley to the lustful verse of Lord Byron, this diverse collection embraces all things romantic and sensuous Many of the poets in this collection write from experience, and their words of passion, infatuation, longing and tenderness are as powerful now as they were first penned 94 OTHER TITLES FROM SUMMERSDALE Love 99 Ways to Show You Care Stewart Ferris 84024 400 £4.99 Hardback 110 x 110 mm, 96 pages An amusing and entertaining collection of inventive, imaginative, incredibly impressive and sometimes downright insane ways to say the three most romantic words in the English language ‘I love you’ 95 www.summersdale.com 96 ... amazing little bean over 1500 years ago They believed it possessed awesome powers and used it in worship rituals The Aztecs also held the cacao bean in similar esteem and associated it with their... pieces.’ Judith Viorst, writer 16 Chocotionary 17 Bitter Chocolate Also known as unsweetened chocolate, although it often contains a small amount of sweetening It is the chocolate best suited to... twentieth century it was so commonplace that in the Second World War chocolate was a major part of soldiers’ rations It s not that chocolates are a substitute for love Love is a substitute for chocolate