Archive for June 19th, 2009

chocolates

Chocolate is almost unique as a food in that it is solid at normal room temperatures yet melts easily within the mouth. This is because the main fat in it, which is called cocoa butter, is essentially solid at temperatures below 25 1C when it holds all the solid sugar and cocoa particles together. This fat is, however, almost entirely liquid at body temperature, enabling the particles to flow past one another, so the chocolate becomes a smooth liquid when it is heated in the mouth. Chocolate also has a sweet taste that is attractive to most people. Strangely chocolate began as a rather astringent, fatty and unpleasant tasting drink and the fact that it was developed at all, is one of the mysteries of history.

The first known cocoa plantations were established by the Maya in the lowlands of south Yucatan about 600 AD. Cocoa trees were being grown by the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru when the Europeans discovered central America. The beans were highly prized and used as money as well as to produce a drink known as chocolatl. The beans were roasted in earthenware pots and crushed between stones, sometimes using decorated heated tables and mill stones. They could then be kneaded into cakes, which could be added to cold water to make a drink. Vanilla, spices or honey were often added and the drink whipped to make it frothy. The Aztec Emperor Montezeuma was said to have drunk 50 jars of this beverage per day.

Christopher Columbus bought back some cocoa beans to Europe as a curiosity, but it was only after the Spaniards conquered Mexico that Don Cortez introduced the drink to Spain in the 1520s. Here sugar was added to overcome some of the bitter, astringent flavours, but the drink remained virtually unknown in the rest of Europe for almost a hundred years, coming to Italy in 1606 and  France in 1657. It was very expensive and, being a drink for the aristocracy, its spread was often through connections between powerful families. For example, the Spanish princess Anna of Austria introduced it to her husband King Louis XIII of France and the French court in about 1615. Here Cardinal Richelieu enjoyed it both as a drink and to aid his digestion. Its flavour was not liked by everyone and one Pope in fact declared that it could be drunk during a fast, because its taste was so bad.

The first chocolate drinking was established in London in 1657 and it was mentioned in Pepys’ Diary of 1664 where he wrote that ‘‘jocolatte’’ was ‘‘very good’’. In 1727 milk was being added to the drink. This invention is generally attributed to Nicholas Sanders. During the eighteenth century, White’s Chocolate House became the fashionable place for young Londoners, while politicians of the day went to the Cocoa Tree Chocolate House. These were much less rowdy than the taverns of the period. It remained however, very much a drink for the wealthy.

One problem with the chocolate drink was that it was very fatty. Over half of the cocoa bean is made up of cocoa butter. This will melt in hot water making the cocoa particles hard to disperse as well as looking unpleasant, because of fat coming to the surface. The Dutch, however, found a way of improving the drink by removing part of this fat. In 1828 Van Houten developed the cocoa press. This was quite remarkable, as his entire factory was manually operated at the time. The cocoa bean cotyledons (known as cocoa nibs) were pressed to produce a hard ‘‘cake’’ with about half the fat removed. This was milled into a powder, which could be used to produce a much less fatty drink. In order to make this powder disperse better in the hot water or milk, the Dutch treated the cocoa beans during the roasting process with an alkali liquid. This has subsequently become known as the Dutching process. By changing the type of alkalising agent, it also became possible to adjust the colour of the cocoa powder.

Source :The Science of Chocolate, 2nd. edition, Stephen Beckett

medicinal tea

Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM as it is known in the West, is a rising star in the realm of alternative and complementary health care in the West. In the United States, for instance, over half of all the states have legalized the professional practice of acupuncture and Chinese medicine and there are currently over 50 schools teaching acupuncture and Chinese medicine in the US. Likewise in Europe, Chinese medicine is increasingly being practiced by both non-m.d.’s and m.d.’s alike with schools of acupuncture and Chinese medicine springing up in every country in Western Europe.

chinese pharmacy

When most Westerners think of Chinese medicine, they typically think of acupuncture since it was the first modality of Chinese medicine to receive popular exposure in the media. However, in China, acupuncture is actually not the main modality of TCM. In China, Chinese medicine first and mostly means the prescription of  Chinese “herbal” remedies. We say herbal in quotes because, in actuality, Chinese medicine makes use of ingredients from all three kingdoms animal, vegetable, and mineral. Thus Chinese herbal medicine is a bit of a misnomer since not all the ingredients a Chinese doctor prescribes are, in fact, herbs in the strict sense of this word.

Chinese Herbal Tea

In any case, when a Chinese doctor prescribes an “herbal” remedy, it is usually in the form of a polypharmacy formula administered as a decoction. Polypharmacy means administering multiple ingredients at the same time. In the overwhelming majority of cases, Chinese doctors administer formulas consisting of from six to 20 ingredients. Most of these ingredients are roots and rhizomes, root barks, and woody twigs, with a lesser number being leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, and other ingredients. When such polypharmacy formulas are used, they are typically boiled in water for at least 30 minutes and often for more than an hour. The resulting medicinal liquid is then poured off and is called a tang or, literally, a soup. However, when referring to medicinal soups, we usually call these in English a decoction.

Such multiple ingredient soups or decoctions are very strong medicine, and Chinese doctors go to school for from four to six years to learn how to prescribe these without negative or side effects. After all, if something isstrong enough to cure disease in the right person, they must also be strong enough to make someone ill when
they are prescribed erroneously. There is no such thing as a universal panacea among medicinal substances. Thus the prescription of polypharmacy Chinese medicinal decoctions is a professional system of health care requiring lengthy professional training and clinical experience.

SOURCE: Chinese Medicinal Teas : Simple, Proven, Folk Formulas for Common Diseases & Promoting Health author: Zong, Xiao-fan.; Liscum, Gary.