We at NCA spend a lot of time talking and writing about chocolate, in addition to eating it. If you are like us then two new books were recently published which may interest you. The first, “Chocolate History, Culture and Heritage” previewed at a Mars sponsored chocolate symposium at the Smithsonian Museum of American History this month. The second “Chocolate in Mesoamerica” was recommended to me by a scientist at Hershey’s Health and Nutrition Center.
These books are not for the faint-hearted. “Chocolate in Mesoamerica” includes a photograph of “Christ of the Cacao, a dramatic and beautiful sixteenth-century image of Christ” that remains in the cathedral of Mexico City. The Christ figure is holding a cacao plant. According to the book, 16th century pilgrims left “offerings of cacao beans as alms at the feet of the Christ.”
Some 743 pages into “Chocolate History, Culture, and Heritage the editors offer a chapter on “Chocolate Futures; Promising Areas for Further Research.” They suggest that entire books are waiting to be written on such topics as chocolate and the fine arts, colonial advertisements, shipwreck survivor accounts and personal diaries and family histories involving chocolate and cocoa.
And speaking of fine arts, who can resist this 1660 poem about chocolate and fertility, reprinted in the chocolate history book:
Nor need the Women longer grieve,
Who spend their Oyle (sic) yet not Conceive,
For ’tis a Help Immediate,
If such but Lick of Chocolate.
Does the mere thought of chocolate move you to artistic (or other) passions? If you have written a play, a poem, painted with chocolate, been shipwrecked or climbed a mountain with chocolate as your only sustenance, let us know!
Textbook by Carl Weaver.
Christ of the Cacao by Doc Bee.
9:59 am on April 19th, 2009
I found some AWESOME treats for my son’s birthday and class parties. They are very unique chocolate covered rice krispy treats & can be found at: http://www.forbiddensweets.com