CHOCOLATE AND OTHER
PLEASURES by
Elizabeth Clements
Have you ever leafed through a cookbook, searching for a new recipe,
then stood in front of your pantry, frustrated at being short a few uncommon
ingredients? So, back to the same old tried and true. And that’s when I
mentally slap myself up the side of my head, reminding myself to be grateful
that I am in the present day, not in the old west, heating up a can of beans
over a small campfire. If I planned well, I might also have had some beef jerky
and even a dried-up biscuit that I could wash down with strong, black coffee. Coffee was quite a staple in the old west, and even when consumed black,
still tasted better than the warm, brackish water in the cowboy’s canteen.
Coffee can be traced back at least to the 15th century. One
legend attributes the discovery of coffee to a goat herder in Yemen. He noticed
his goats being unusually frisky after eating berries from one of the trees.
After consuming some of the beans, he, too, was energized. He brought the beans
to his superiors at the monastery. The abbot boiled the berries and after
consuming the drink, was alert for hours, even through evening prayers. He
shared this discovery with the other monks and over the next two centuries, the
benefits of coffee consumption was enjoyed throughout the middle East.
It was served in coffee houses where people socialized and enjoyed
entertainment. These gahveh khaneh became
such important gathering places and exchanges of information that they were
often referred to as Schools of the Wise. Pilgrims to the
holy city of Mecca talked of this wine of Araby when they
returned home from their travels. Thus, the news spread even further.
By the 17th century, coffee
arrived in Europe. When it reached Venice in 1615, not everyone welcomed the
drink. The clergy demanded that Pope Clement VIII ban this bitter
invention of Satan. Being a wise man, he tasted it first, liked it, and
to the consternation of the clergy, gave coffee his papal approval.
In
England penny universities sprang up, so called because for the price of
a penny one could purchase a cup of coffee and engage in stimulating
conversation. Up until then,
beer and wine were the prevalent breakfast drink, but gradually they were
replaced by coffee when consumers realized they could function better without
starting their day fuzzy-headed with alcohol.
As the
popularity of coffee grew in London, savvy business owners brought coffee to
America in the mid-1600’s. It had to compete with the preferred drink, tea,
until King George III levied such high taxes on tea that the colonists revolted
with the now famous Boston Tea Party.
The Dutch are
credited for being the first to obtain coffee seedlings and growing them
outside of Arabia, with increased success on the Island of Java. In 1714, the
Mayor of Amsterdam gave a coffee plant seedling to King Louis XIV. A few years later, Gabriel de Clieu stole a
seedling from the King’s botanical garden and brought the coffee plant to
Martinique. The seedling thrived and 50 years later there were over 18 million
coffee trees on the island.
People from
all walks of life brought coffee seeds with them in their travels and
established plantations in new lands. By the end of the 18th century, coffee
had become one of the world's most profitable export crops. After crude oil,
coffee is the most sought commodity in the world.
The other night I watched a movie that actually triggered the
idea for this blog. In one scene, poor,
immigrant homesteaders were given an orange by a friendly neighbor. The orange
passed from hand to hand, each person just caressing it and holding it to their
nose. Then the orange was carefully
peeled, broken into sections, and two given to each person.
Oh, the joy
and wonder on their faces as their tongue savored the juicy sweetness, probably
for the very first time. It was slowly chewed, enjoyed with a reverence that
squeezed my heart. (I love oranges best when they’ve been chilled straight from
the fridge.) Yet, in the old west, fresh fruit was harder to come by, if at
all, or too expensive for most pockets except the wealthy. This point was well
made in another movie where even the shopkeeper couldn’t afford to eat the
oranges he sold.
Here’s a
short history about my favorite variety, the navel orange.These oranges are
called Ambersweets. (Picture by Wikipedia)
In the 1850’s,
in Brazil, a tree growing in
a monastery garden was
making very odd fruit. Inside each orange skin there was a large orange
with no seeds. At the bottom of the orange were smaller sections that looked
like a smaller squashed orange inside the same skin, which was really the
bigger orange's twin. The little orange
made a strange bump at the bottom of the orange skin, that looked just like a
human navel or belly
button. These oranges were named "Navel Oranges". They tasted very
sweet, had no seeds and they peeled quite easily. This made them a very good
orange to grow commercially. But they could
not grow from seed. They could only grow from plant cuttings. Nowadays,
thousands of these orange trees have been planted from cuttings. "Navel
Oranges" are grown in California and exported to many countries of
the world. Every navel orange in the world has the same genetic make up as
the oranges on that tree in the monastery in Brazil.
I remember in Grade Five history class reading how the sailors, spending
weeks on the ocean, suffered from scurvy for lack of fresh fruit. The water in
those oak barrels must have become quite disgusting with time. Perhaps that’s
why so many sailors drank rum to help offset the taste. Just like in westerns,
the men ask for whiskey, never water, when they belly up to the bar.
Talking about sailors triggers thoughts of explorers of the high
seas. Thanks to them mistakenly sailing
west in search of spices, silver and gold, explorers discovered America and introduced a new rage to
Europe in the early 1500’s: hot chocolate.
There is some confusion by historians over who first introduced
chocolate to Europe. Some credit Christopher Columbus of having intercepted a
trade ship and brought cacao beans to Spain in 1502. Others say it was Hernán
Cortés who met with an Aztec emperor and was served a
bitter ceremonial brew made from cacao seeds.
Fermented beverages made from the cacao bean date back to 450 BC
Mesoamerica (present-day Mexico). Theobroma cacao is Latin for the cacao tree, which
means food of the gods. The cacao tree produces the bean, and anything made from the bean is
called chocolate. Research shows the word chocolate
originates from the Aztec word xocoatl, which means a
bitter drink. It was brewed from cacao beans. (I can’t help noting how the two
words sound so similar: xocoatl and chocolate).
“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.”
The ancient Olmec civilization of southern Mexico can quite possibly be
credited as having invented the chocolate drink dating back to 1500 B.C. The
Olmec left no written history, so it can only be assumed this bitter drink
continued through the centuries because it was reserved for ceremonial rites
and medicinal healing.
When archaeologists unearthed Olmec containers and had them analyzed,
traces of theobromine, a stimulant compound found in chocolate and tea, were found in the pots.
“Centuries later, the Mayans praised
chocolate as the drink of the gods. Mayan chocolate was a revered brew made of
roasted and ground cacao seeds mixed with chillies, water, and cornmeal. Mayans
poured this mixture from one pot to another, creating a thick foamy beverage
called xocolatl, meaning bitter water.”
By the 15th
century, the Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency. They believed that chocolate
was a gift from the god Quetzalcoatl, and drank it as a refreshing beverage, an
aphrodisiac, and even to prepare for war.
Therefore, when that Aztec emperor honored Cortés by serving him with this food of the gods, Cortés
must have seen this revered drink as a lucrative venture and he reportedly brought it to Spain in 1528. The
Spanish found the fermented brew too bitter, but by adding sugar and/or honey,
it was quite pleasing to the palate—but only the wealthy could afford to
purchase the beans. Even Catholic monks enjoyed the beverage and used it in
their rituals.
The Spanish managed
to keep chocolate a well-kept secret for nearly a century until the daughter of
the Spanish king married Louis XIII of France. Princess Anne loved the drink
and brought it with her to the French court. It didn’t take long for the craze
for chocolate to reach England, where it was offered at special chocolate
houses for the English aristocracy.
In 1828, the
invention of the chocolate press revolutionized chocolate making. This
innovative device could squeeze cocoa butter from roasted cacao beans, leaving
a fine cocoa powder behind. The powder was then mixed with liquids and poured
into a mold, where it solidified into an edible bar of chocolate.
And thus, the chocolate bar as we
enjoy it today, was created.
Over
the decades, variations of chocolate were introduced by creative confectioners,
particularly the Swiss. There is milk chocolate, dark chocolate, baking
chocolate, semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate, white chocolate and even raw
chocolate, compound chocolate and modeling chocolate.
Much of today’s chocolate is
criticized for being unhealthy because of the ingredients, but dark chocolate
is considered to be an antioxidant-rich, heart-healthy treat.
It is estimated that $75 billion is
spent annually worldwide on chocolate and that Americans consume 12 pounds of
this tasty treat yearly. I bet some chocolate lovers eat more than 12 pounds—and
that’s not including hot chocolate. <grin>
With all this talk of chocolate, I
now want some, too. And the Halloween bars are all gone. Oh, did I mention
chocolate tastes divine in coffee?
For further reading about the
addictive history of chocolate, try these links: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/history-of-chocolate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chocolate
https://www.chocolate.org/blogs/chocolate-blog/a-brief-history-of-chocolate
Excerpt: Beneath A Desperado Moon
Josh carried the supplies into the lean-to, then
leading his horse behind him through the moonlight, headed toward their cave. Molly
ran to meet him, leaped into his arms and covered his face with kisses.
“Bloody hell, maybe I should leave more often.” She
stuck out her tongue and he laughed. “Sorry, I don’t really mean that. I worry
about you when you’re out of my sight. I want to get you away from here.”
“I know you do, Josh.” With one arm still around her,
he turned toward his horse, opened a saddlebag, and dug out something wrapped
in paper. “Here’s something for you, my sweet.”
“A gift?” Her heart lifted, touched more by the
endearment than the secrets hiding inside the parcel. “What is it?”
He chuckled. “Open it and find out.”
She tore at the
paper. The scent hit her first, sweet to the nose. Then her mouth watered. And
still she didn’t know what it was. She’d never seen anything like it before.
Something dark. “What is it?”
“You really don’t know?” His voice echoed his
amazement. He took the packet from her, broke off a piece and held it to her
lips. “Open wide. Chocolate. Swiss chocolate.”
Smiling, she opened her mouth. The instant the
chocolate touched her tongue, her starved taste buds shot to clamoring life.
The crispness soon melted, filling her mouth with soft, delicious sweetness.
She moaned her pleasure.
“Swallow. There’s more, Sweeting. Lot’s more.” Josh
couldn’t take his eyes off the pleasure spreading her lips into a wide smile.
The way her eyes sparkled. It reminded him of how she looked when making love.
Her tongued slipped out and swept across her bottom lip, then the top.
He wanted to taste her, lay her down on the blankets
and love her senseless. From the tightening of his pants, another part of him
eagerly agreed. Yet, he put his anticipation aside, not wishing to interrupt
her sensual enjoyment of the chocolate.
He broke off another small piece, wanting to prolong
their mutual pleasure—she eating, and he, watching her enchantment. The
pressure grew inside him, wanting her, needing her. He placed another piece
against her lips. She took it from him and pressed it against his. “I want you
to have some, too.”
“I’d rather have you.” Chocolate melted against his
lips. He obliged, but refused any more. “This is for you. I’ve had it often
growing up.”
“Yes, it must be nice being rich,” she said with a
dreamy smile, savoring one more piece. Then, with a sigh, she folded up the
paper and tucked it into her shirt pocket. “I’ll save some for later.”
He liked this trait in her. Not selfish, grasping,
greedy. A memory from childhood slipped in—sitting underneath the huge
Christmas tree in the great hall. Sharing bonbons with an enchanting girl with
long, golden hair. How her blue eyes had lit with delight. And how, quickly,
she’d consumed one after another, then dashed away with the rest. And later,
he’d learned Phaedra had eaten too many in bed and become violently sick.
“What is it? You’ve grown so still.”
A soft touch on his arm shook him from his reverie. He
looked down, confused for a moment by the upturned face, concerned cinnamon
brown eyes gleaming in the moonlight. Desperate to erase that childhood memory,
he cupped Molly’s face and kissed her.
Ah, yes, so much better. Chocolate sweetness seduced
his senses. He drew her against him. “You’re like that chocolate. Sweet and enticing. Bewitching.”
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.clements.549
Website: https://www.elizabethclements.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17898781.Elizabeth_Clements
https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Horse-Thief-Moon-Prairie-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B07BHQNBDW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?
https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Fugitive-Moon-Prairie-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B07SZ4LHVS
https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Desperado-Moon-Prairie-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B08JLG6K5P/ref=pd_sbs_351_1/141-1415496-7468914
Link for Diamond Jack’s Angel/Hot Western Nights Anthology
https://www.amazon.com/Western-Nights-Karen-Michelle-Nutt-ebook/dp/B07T9F21B5/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_3?
