Eat the chocolate way!

Believe it or not... yes, there is a right way to eat chocolate. But tasting is just a part of the whole process. Being a chocolate expert is important, after all, its our health that is at risk.

First, lets make it a habit to look at the ingredients or labels of the food that we are eating. In this case, chocolates. Make sure that the chocolate your about to eat has large amounts of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. This is a must if your looking for a good quality of chocolate, yet it may be expensive. But hey, why let your taste buds suffer and make your day miserable?! right?!

Seconds, its better if you keep your chocolates at a room temperature. Part of the tasting experience is if it heavenly melts in your mouth. Also, if the chocolate is already in the fridge, don't take it out! It will melt easily.

Thirdly, use your three senses. For the sense of sight, examine the chocolate that your about to eat. It must be free from blemishes or scarce. If not, it must be old or subject to extremes in temperature or handling. For the sense of hearing, a good quality of chocolate must have a "snap' when break into pieces. "The louder the snap, the higher the cocoa quantity and better the tempering". For the sense of smell, it should smell the aroma of chocolate. Since chocolate adapts to the odor of its environment and its added ingedients may interfere in smelling its aroma, the chocolate's aroma must still prevail or else its taste is much different from a real chocolate would be.

Lastly, Indulge to your chocolate. Treat every bite as if its your last. Examine how it the flavors melt in your mouth and how it makes your day complete. As quoted from the article, "Treat chocolate with some Respect", for it will reward you for it. Its better if you'll be eating your favorite chocolate without destruction, that way, you'll appreciate it more.

Sources: http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongnutrition/ht/taste_chocolate.htm

http://candy.about.com/od/workingwithchocolate/a/selectchoc.htm

image: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1258624.htm

The Chocolate Festival Appeal

[1] What is Chocolate? It comprises a number of raw and processed foods that are produced from the seed of the tropical cacao tree. Native to lowland tropical South America, cacao has been cultivated for three millennia in Central America and Mexico, with its earliest documented used around 1100 BC. All of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, including the Maya and Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. After being roasted and ground, the resulting products are known as chocolate or cocoa.

As to most people, eating or drinking chocolates has become a part of their daily food intake. Some of them would not even want to live a day without it. Due to their chocolate cravings, they become unconscious with their health to the point that they exceed to the advisable chocolate ingestion. As doctors say, "Eat and Drink Moderately." This also applies to chocolates, especially to senior citizens and diabetic people.

Although, chocolate is not bad as you may think it is. In fact, chocolates are considered to have healthy and scientific benefits. It is an aphrodisiac and an anti-depressant. As studies shows, Dark chocolate is the healthiest among all its types. It is richer in antioxidant (that can also be found in green tea, red wine, orange juice, spinach, onion, corn, strawberries, bananas and apples), prevents the risk of heart diseases (contains stearic acid), and increases the urinary oxalate which reduces the risk of kidney stone formation. In addition, caffeine present in chocolates are lesser than that of coffee.

Most of these facts are not known by many in our country and just prefers eating chocolates whenever they want. Some fact unmentioned are contrary to popular belief or what we call "chocolate fallacies". Since Filipinos lack enough knowledge and self control with the food or sweets that they eat, there has been an incease in population of death caused by cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. To prevent all these and educate Filipinos about their favorite food, which is in relation to their healthy lifestyle, I've proposed a Chocolate Festival as a topic for my thesis.

The event would be the first ever chocolate event in the Philippines that would make history through its world record breaking chocolate attempts included as one of the major highlights of the event. will cater to the growing population of chocolate lovers in the Philippines and help them learn more about their favorite food. The event’s purpose is to educate the consumers of the healthy benefits that they can get from chocolates and making them be conscious of their health and lifestyle. Workshops and seminars about baking, cooking and decorating chocolates would be available to develop their skills and talents. In addition, the event would enhance the creativity and baking skills of individual, and not just bakers or bakery owners. Likewise, the event showcases a variety of chocolates, from imported to local and exotic to delicously indemand chocolates. Also to complete the celebration, a parade of mascots and floats of different chocolate products will be available to entertain kids and teenagers.

Since the event would take place during the weekend before Christmas, It will serve as a bonding activity for families, lovers and friends. This way, relationships are built and made stronger, gaps within the family are bridged and memories are made. For individuals and professionals, the event can serve as their leisure time while enjoying their favorite chocolates and joining fun-filled activities. To keep my target market fit and healthy, the event provides sports activities for them. Noticing some filipinos having an unhealthy lifestyle resulting to various diseases, the event provide a chance for them to be well-informed of the effects that they can get from improper and excessive eating, while doing nothing about it. In addition, the event would be a better opportunity for chocolate companies to advertise their products and launch new ones.

The event would be a fun-filled learning experience. if this would push through in the near future, the chocolate industry and baking industry will boost along with the prestige of the philippines.

Sources: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate
www.geocities.com/chocolatecorner/facts.html
www.healthatoz.com/healthathoz/Athoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/hl/nutr/food/alert02282000.jsp
http://findarticles.com/p/article/mi_m0675/is_5_18/ai_65639596
http://www.med.umich.edu/umim/clinical/pyramid/chocolate.htm

Image: http://www.molon.de/galleries/Malaysia/WestCoast/Cocoa/img.php?pic=3