{"id":279,"date":"2013-06-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/chocolate\/"},"modified":"2013-06-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T00:00:00","slug":"chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/chocolate\/","title":{"rendered":"Chocolate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did You Know these Facts about Chocolate?<\/h2>\n

Cacao, the seed that chocolate is mainly derived from, has been cultivated for at least three thousand years in\u00a0Mexico,\u00a0Central America\u00a0and\u00a0Northern South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC.<\/p>\n

The Mexican\/Aztec versions were always bitter to the taste. It was the Europeans who\u00a0sweetened\u00a0and fattened it by adding refined sugar and milk, two ingredients unknown to the Mexicans.<\/p>\n

The Europeans also used it only in sweets and desserts. It wasn\u2019t until the 1800s that a Briton, John Cadbury, developed the modern chocolate bar.<\/p>\n

Cocoa was originally grown in the Americas, however today Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the world\u2019s cocoa, with\u00a0C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u00a0growing almost half of it.<\/p>\n

I discovered all this from Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"House<\/a><\/p>\n

La Maison du Cacao \u2013 The House of Cocoa, Guadaloupe, Carribean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Giant Chocolate Syrup Slip-n-Slide<\/h2>\n

Every New Year\u2019s Day, my nephew Mat in Newcastle just north of Sydney makes a giant slippery slide. He and all his friends get drunk and slide like mad devils down it into Lake Macquarie!<\/p>\n

This slippery chocolate ride reminds me of it.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Just amazing, the uses we make of chocolate these days!<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one of my favourite sources of chocolate<\/strong>, though in moderation as I\u2019m sure it packs on the kilos \u2013 Nutella. My trouble is I can\u2019t stop eating the jar every day until it\u2019s all gone, plus I put way too much on every piece of toast or muffin.<\/p>\n

\"chocolate<\/a><\/p>\n

Where Do I Get My Favourite Chocolate?<\/h3>\n

Aldi came to Australia from Germany just 10 years ago. The owner is in the top 5 wealthiest people on the planet from memory. I just LOVE Aldi cos it competes with a duopoly we have in Australia of Woolworths and Coles who control most of the food sales here.<\/p>\n

Aldi\u2019s prices are at just two thirds of the two big boys, so you would think their products are not so good. Not true.<\/p>\n

Their range of desserts, cakes, biscuits and chocolate<\/span> is mainly European, German and Belgian in particular. Astounding quality! I grew up eating Cadbury\u2019s but I am now hooked on the German and Belgian chocolates.<\/p>\n

\"Passionate<\/a><\/p>\n

Chocolate in Easter Eggs<\/h3>\n

Another cultural festival that has developed into an excuse for munching copious amounts of chocolate is Easter.<\/p>\n

\n

Easter in Australia<\/a> can be summed up in one, sweet and very commercially oriented word \u2013 chocolate! For at least a month leading up to Easter chocolate eggs and bunnies can be spied creeping their way all over the supermarket shelves. While the religious meaning of Easter is pertinent for some, most Australians enjoy the four day weekend and chocolate fest that ensues.<\/p>\n

Popular options include the Lindt gold bunny, Cadbury cr\u00e8me eggs and the uniquely Australian chocolate bilby, a chocolate incarnation of a near extinct native animal, similar to a\u00a0bandicoot. People also love to scoff hot cross buns which appear in bakeries during the month leading up to Easter.<\/p>\n

The Easter bunny traditionally leaves chocolate eggs for kids overnight in the vein of Santa Claus, while some families have adopted the Easter egg hunt, though this isn\u2019t something that has always been typical of the Australian Easter (when I was a kid no-one did this \u2013 I think we\u2019ve adopted this from Europe and the US in recent years). However the chocolate arrives, as long as it does I say!<\/p>\n

\"chocolate<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

OK, after all that, I am craving a good munch!<\/p>\n

Til Tomorrow<\/p>\n

\"chocolate\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PS Did you get your FREE 22Social app for FB Pages? Go here to get it<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did You Know these Facts about Chocolate? Cacao, the seed that chocolate is mainly derived from, has been cultivated for at least three thousand years in\u00a0Mexico,\u00a0Central America\u00a0and\u00a0Northern South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC. The Mexican\/Aztec versions were always bitter to the taste. It was the Europeans who\u00a0sweetened\u00a0and fattened it by adding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":995,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1163,1164,1165,1166,1167,1168,1169,1170,1171,1172,1173],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-for-money","tag-best-hot-chocolate","tag-chocolate-delight","tag-chocolate","tag-german-chocolate","tag-history-of-chocolate","tag-hot-chocolate-recipe","tag-pictures-of-chocolate","tag-white-chocolate","tag-who-invented-chocolate","tag-world-finest-chocolate","tag-worlds-finest-chocolate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/suetamani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}