Just about two years ago, Patricia Crown published the first study to identify residues of theobromine — a distinctive chemical present in the cacao plant, and hence in chocolate drinks — north of Mexico. The residues were recovered from three of five tested sherds, pieces of three painted cylinders from Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, … Continue reading »
chocolate
Chocolate: for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day: for many people this brings gifts of chocolate. Not that chocolate gift giving is recession proof. A 2009 article from Nielsen market research predicted that sales of chocolate for Valentine’s Day would reach $345 million, enabling purchase of 58 million pounds of chocolate. But in 2010, the National Retail Federation found that couples … Continue reading »
Bitter chocolate news
Cacao beans, the natural source of chocolate, famously were used as a form of money among the Aztecs. Not that everyone wandered the markets in Tenochtitlan with bags of them ready to pay for other goods: consumption, and probably ownership, of cacao was restricted to the nobility. Instead, cacao beans were a valuable, scarce luxury, … Continue reading »