"cocoa" news and stories

Winter got you down? A mug of Marcus Sameulsson's Spiked Hot Chocolate will lift your spirits. This isn't just any hot chocolate -- it's made with rich coconut milk, fresh vanilla beans, cinnamon and nutmeg. For adults, he adds a splash of fragrant dark rum. You'll be feeling warmer in no time.

Get Marcus' Spiked Hot Chocolate recipe.

Scientists have long devoted research efforts to staple crops like corn, wheat and rice.

But chocolate-maker Mars, Inc., in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and computer bigwig IBM, has devoted its energy somewhere sweeter -- to cracking the genetic code of the cacao tree.

Mars announced it has figured out cacao's genome sequence and made it available in the public domain to help improve the cocoa growing process to benefit the world's cocoa farmers and create a more sustainable global cocoa supply.

"The idea here is to bring cocoa to a level that is similar to crops of much higher importance -- corn or rice -- that have access to these genomic tools that speed up the process of breeding," Dr. Juan Carlos Motamayor, Scientific Research Manager of Mars Inc.'s Cocoa Sustainability Program, told Slashfood.

Ever seen a recipe call for Dutch-processed cocoa and wondered what that meant? You're not alone.

Happy National Cocoa Day!

Though you're surely familiar with chocolate, perhaps you're uncertain of the route it takes from cocoa bean to candy bar. Cocoa beans are grown in pods on the Theobroma cacao trees, predominantly in Africa, Southeast Asia and tropical locales, like Hawaii, Brazil and other South American countries. Once removed from the pods, according to the "Food Lover's Companion," the beans are then "fermented, dried, roasted and cracked, [before] the nibs are ground to extract about 75 percent of the cocoa butter, leaving a dark brown paste called chocolate liquor." After this paste hardens, it's ground into cocoa powder.

Whether you're using it in an instant hot-chocolate mix or tossing it into various recipes, enjoy some cocoa powder today!

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As exhibited by these Richart delicacies photographed by Flickr user Mkrigsman, chocolates have come a long way from their origins as "chocolate water," as used by the Aztecs, who enjoyed the bitter drink made from water, cocoa beans and spices. In fact, Aztec ruler Montezuma was so convinced of the bean's aphrodisiac properties that he would drink some 50 glasses of the libation a day.

Although the aphrodisiac qualities of chocolate have since been proven to be more psychological than physiological, we're still smitten with the bean. So celebrate Happy Chocolates Day with your preferred form of the delectable treat.

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