0_Wizard
I love sweet chocolate made from cacao seeds!
Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown food preparation of "Theobroma cacao" seeds, roasted and ground.
chosen_Chocolate_0
Chocolate
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Chocolate
Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown food preparation of "Theobroma cacao" seeds, roasted and ground. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other foods. Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Olmecs (Mexico), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BCE. In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Maya and Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as "xocolātl" , a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water".
Hot chocolate
Hot chocolate, also known as hot cocoa, drinking chocolate or just cocoa is a heated beverage consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener. Hot chocolate may be topped with whipped cream. Hot chocolate made with melted chocolate is sometimes called drinking chocolate, characterized by less sweetness and a thicker consistency. The first chocolate beverage is believed to have been created by the Mayans around 2,500-3,000 years ago, and a cocoa beverage was an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 AD, by which they referred to as xocōlātl.
History of chocolate
The history of chocolate begins in Mesoamerica. Fermented beverages made from chocolate date back to 1900 BC. The Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the god of wisdom, and the seeds once had so much value that they were used as a form of currency. Originally prepared only as a drink, chocolate was served as a bitter, from a liquid, mixed with spices or corn puree. It was believed to have aphrodisiac powers and to give the drinker strength. Today, such drinks are also known as "Chilate" and are made by locals in the South of Mexico. After its arrival to Europe in the sixteenth century, sugar was added to it, rendering it an aphrodisiac, and it became popular throughout society, first among the ruling classes and then among the common people.
History of chocolate in Spain
The history of chocolate in Spain is part of the culinary history of Spain as understood since the 16th century, when the colonization of the Americas began and the cocoa plant was discovered in regions of Mesoamerica, until the present. After the conquest of Mexico, cocoa as a commodity travelled by boat from the port of Nueva España to the Spanish coast. The first such voyage to Europe occurred at an unknown date in the 1520s. However it was only in the 17th century that regular trade began from the port of Veracruz, opening a maritime trade route that would supply the new demand from Spain, and later from other European countries.
Chocolate industry in the Philippines
The chocolate industry in the Philippines evidences the agricultural roots of the Philippine society. The growing of cacao or cocoa boasts a long history stretching from the colonial times. Originating from Mesoamerican forests, cacao was first introduced by the Spanish colonizers four centuries ago. Since then the Philippine cocoa industry has been the primary producer of cocoa beans in the Southeast Asia. There are many areas of production of cacao in the Philippines, owing to its agriculture. The chocolate industry is currently on a small to medium scale. The word “chocolate” as we know it today was spelled in different ways throughout time, in different ways such as “chocalatall,” “jocolatte,” “jacolatte,” and “chockelet.” It is a derivative of the word "cacahuatl" or "xocoatl", a bitter drink the Aztecs brewed from cacao beans mixed with spices, wine, and other local ingredients that can be traced back to Pre-Columbian Mexico.
Theobroma cacao
Theobroma cacao, also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small ( tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae, native to the deep tropical regions of Central and South America. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make cocoa mass, cocoa powder, confectionery, ganache and chocolate. Leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, long and broad. The flowers are produced in clusters directly on the trunk and older branches; this is known as cauliflory. The flowers are small, diameter, with pink calyx. The floral formula is ✶ K5 C5 A(5°+5²) (5). While many of the world's flowers are pollinated by bees (Hymenoptera) or butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera), cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, "Forcipomyia" midges in the subfamily Forcipomyiinae.
Aztec cuisine
Aztec cuisine was the cuisine of the Aztec Empire and the Nahua peoples of the Valley of Mexico prior to European contact in 1519. The most important staple was corn (maize), a crop that was so important to Aztec society that it played a central part in their mythology. Just like wheat in much of Europe or rice in most of East Asia, it was the food without which a meal was not a meal. It came in varieties that differed in color, texture, size and prestige, and was eaten as corn tortillas, tamales or "ātōlli", maize gruel. The other constants of Aztec food were salt and chili peppers and the basic definition of Aztec fasting was to abstain from these two flavors.
1_Apprentice
I love all things chocolate! Is cacao different from cocoa?
0_Wizard
Cacao has been cultivated for three millenia and coca is made from it
Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica.
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Chocolate
chosen_topic_0_Chocolate
Theobroma cacao
Theobroma cacao, also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small ( tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae, native to the deep tropical regions of Central and South America. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make cocoa mass, cocoa powder, confectionery, ganache and chocolate. Leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, long and broad. The flowers are produced in clusters directly on the trunk and older branches; this is known as cauliflory. The flowers are small, diameter, with pink calyx. The floral formula is ✶ K5 C5 A(5°+5²) (5). While many of the world's flowers are pollinated by bees (Hymenoptera) or butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera), cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, "Forcipomyia" midges in the subfamily Forcipomyiinae.
Mazda Millenia
The Mazda Millenia is an automobile which was manufactured by Mazda in Japan from 1993 to 2002. The Millenia was originally planned as the second of three models for Mazda’s proposed luxury brand Amati. As the company’s dwindling finances caused by the onslaught of the "bubble economy" prevented the launch of the Amati brand, the Millenia was released in the autumn of 1993 in Europe as the Mazda Xedos 9 and in Japan and Australia as the Eunos 800. The car was launched in North America in 1995 as the Mazda Millenia and in July 1997 the Japanese market Eunos 800 was also renamed to Mazda Millenia as Mazda discontinued the Eunos brand.
Chocolate industry in the Philippines
The chocolate industry in the Philippines evidences the agricultural roots of the Philippine society. The growing of cacao or cocoa boasts a long history stretching from the colonial times. Originating from Mesoamerican forests, cacao was first introduced by the Spanish colonizers four centuries ago. Since then the Philippine cocoa industry has been the primary producer of cocoa beans in the Southeast Asia. There are many areas of production of cacao in the Philippines, owing to its agriculture. The chocolate industry is currently on a small to medium scale. The word “chocolate” as we know it today was spelled in different ways throughout time, in different ways such as “chocalatall,” “jocolatte,” “jacolatte,” and “chockelet.” It is a derivative of the word "cacahuatl" or "xocoatl", a bitter drink the Aztecs brewed from cacao beans mixed with spices, wine, and other local ingredients that can be traced back to Pre-Columbian Mexico.
Chocolate
Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown food preparation of "Theobroma cacao" seeds, roasted and ground. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other foods. Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Olmecs (Mexico), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BCE. In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Maya and Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as "xocolātl" , a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water".
Coca
Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant is grown as a cash crop in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, even in areas where its cultivation is unlawful. There are some reports that the plant is being cultivated in the south of Mexico as a cash crop and an alternative to smuggling its recreational product cocaine. It also plays a role in many traditional Andean cultures as well as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (see Traditional uses). Coca is known throughout the world for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine.
The Mall at Millenia
The Mall at Millenia (commonly called The Millenia Mall or Millenia) is an upscale, contemporary, indoor shopping mall located in Orlando, Florida just off of Interstate 4 (exit 78) at Conroy Road near the northern end of International Drive. Opened in 2002, it has over 150 stores, and is anchored by Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Neiman Marcus, whose store at the mall is similar to the one at International Plaza and Bay Street. The GLA is 1,118,000 ft² (103,866 m²). The Mall at Millenia advertises itself as an upscale, premium shopping mall, as evidenced by its anchors. Its Macy's was the first in Central Florida, and remains its largest as the other Macy's in Orlando are converted Burdines stores.
Latin American economy
Latin America as a region has multiple nation-states, with varying levels of economic complexity. The Latin American economy is an export-based economy consisting of individual countries in the geographical regions of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The socioeconomic patterns of what is now called Latin America were set in the colonial era when the region was controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Up until independence in the early nineteenth century, colonial Latin American regional economies boomed. Many parts of the region had favorable factor endowments of deposits of precious metals, mainly silver, or tropical climatic conditions and locations near coasts that allowed for the development of cane sugar plantations.
1_Apprentice
Ohhh! Okay, I get it now! Three millenia, really? Where is it typically grown?
0_Wizard
Oh its grown by many cultures in MesoAmerica
Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica.
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Chocolate
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Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is an important historical region and cultural area in the Americas, extending from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica, and within which pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is one of six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently, and the second in the Americas along with Norte Chico (Caral-Supe) in present-day northern coastal Peru. As an uncultural swine area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures.
Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation–3500 BCE), the Archaic (3500–2000 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2000 BCE–200 CE), the Classic (200–1000 CE), and the Postclassic (1000–1697 CE). Some of the period divisions are taken from the history of the Maya: The Preclassic-Classic boundary marks the first Maya "collapse", the Classic-Postclassic boundary marks the second, and the end date of 1697 marks the conquest of the last independent Maya city-state, Tayasal. However, this chronology applies to other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations as well.
Mesoamerican languages
Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador and Nicaragua. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and seven major language families. Mesoamerica is also an area of high linguistic diffusion in that long-term interaction among speakers of different languages through several millennia has resulted in the convergence of certain linguistic traits across disparate language families. The Mesoamerican sprachbund is commonly referred to as the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area.
Geography of Mesoamerica
The geography of Mesoamerica describes the geographic features of Mesoamerica, a culture area in the Americas inhabited by complex indigenous pre-Columbian cultures exhibiting a suite of shared and common cultural characteristics. Several well-known Mesoamerican cultures include the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Maya, the Aztec and the Purépecha. Mesoamerica is often subdivided in a number of ways. One common method, albeit a broad and general classification, is to distinguish between the highlands and lowlands. Another way is to subdivide the region into sub-areas that generally correlate to either culture areas or specific physiographic regions.
Sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials but, since Modernism, there has been an almost complete freedom of materials and process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. Sculpture in stone survives far better than works of art in perishable materials, and often represents the majority of the surviving works (other than pottery) from ancient cultures, though conversely traditions of sculpture in wood may have vanished almost entirely.
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its hieroglyphic script—the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. This region consists of the northern lowlands encompassing the Yucatán Peninsula, and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, running from the Mexican state of Chiapas, across southern Guatemala and onwards into El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain.
Pre-Columbian era
The Pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period. While the phrase "pre-Columbian era" literally refers only to the time preceding Christopher Columbus's voyages of 1492, in practice the phrase is usually used to denote the entire history of indigenous Americas cultures until those cultures were exterminated, diminished, or extensively altered by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries after Columbus's first landing.
1_Apprentice
That's really interesting! What else do you know about cacao? Are there any health benefits?
0_Wizard
Not sure I just like it but the seeds are bitter and must be fermented for flavor
The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
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Chocolate
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Coffee
Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of berries from the "Coffea" plant. The genus "Coffea" is native to tropical Africa (specifically having its origin in Ethiopia and Sudan) and Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius, and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The plant was exported from Africa to countries around the world. Coffee plants are now cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded arabica, and the less sophisticated but stronger and hardier robusta.
Ancient Israelite cuisine
Ancient Israelite cuisine refers to the food eaten by the ancient Israelites during a period of over a thousand years, from the beginning of the Israelite presence in the Land of Israel at the beginning of the Iron Age until the Roman period. The dietary staples were bread, wine and olive oil, but also included legumes, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fish and meat. Religious beliefs, which prohibited the consumption of certain foods, shaped the Israelite diet. There was considerable continuity in the main components of the diet over time, despite the introduction of new foodstuffs at various stages.
Cocoa bean
The cocoa bean, also called cacao bean, cocoa (), and cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of "Theobroma cacao", from which cocoa solids and, because of the seed's fat, cocoa butter can be extracted. The beans are the basis of chocolate, and of such Mesoamerican foods as "mole" and "tejate". The word "cocoa" comes from the Spanish word "cacao", which is derived from the Nahuatl word "cacahuatl". The Nahuatl word, in turn, ultimately derives from the reconstructed Proto Mije-Sokean word "*kakaw~*kakawa". The term "cocoa" also means  The cacao tree is native to the Americas. It originated in Central America and parts of Mexico.
Chocolate
Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown food preparation of "Theobroma cacao" seeds, roasted and ground. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other foods. Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Olmecs (Mexico), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BCE. In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Maya and Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as "xocolātl" , a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water".
Taste
Taste, gustatory perception, or gustation is one of the five traditional senses that belongs to the gustatory system. Taste is the sensation produced when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds in the oral cavity, mostly on the tongue. Taste, along with smell (olfaction) and trigeminal nerve stimulation (registering texture, pain, and temperature), determines flavors of food or other substances. Humans have taste receptors on taste buds (gustatory calyculi) and other areas including the upper surface of the tongue and the epiglottis. The gustatory cortex is responsible for the perception of taste.
Pu'er tea
Pu'er or pu-erh is a variety of fermented tea produced in Yunnan province, China. The town of Pu'er is named after the tea that is produced close by. Fermentation in the context of tea production involves microbial fermentation and oxidation of the tea leaves, after they have been dried and rolled. This process is a Chinese specialty and produces tea known as "hēichá" (黑茶), commonly translated as dark, or black tea. This type of tea is different from what in the West is known as "black tea", which in China is called "hóngchá" (红茶) i.e. "red tea". The best known variety of this category of tea is pu'er from Yunnan Province, named after the trading post for dark tea during imperial China.
Korean cuisine
Korean cuisine has evolved through centuries of social and political change. Originating from ancient agricultural and nomadic traditions in the Korean peninsula and southern Manchuria, Korean cuisine has evolved through a complex interaction of the natural environment and different cultural trends. Korean cuisine is largely based on rice, vegetables, and meats. Traditional Korean meals are noted for the number of side dishes (반찬; "banchan") that accompany steam-cooked short-grain rice. Kimchi is served at nearly every meal. Commonly used ingredients include sesame oil, "doenjang" (fermented bean paste), soy sauce, salt, garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, "gochujang" (fermented red chili paste) and napa cabbage.