Speak Easy

By Jerri Wyman

Keeping pieces of chocolate on hand is like having small treasures on reserve.

- Dave Davidson

Nothing symbolizes Valentine's Day quite like chocolate does. It's ironic that chocolate also has been linked to making people feel better, causing anxiety and killing dogs. Oh my, what a versatile ingredient! Melting in the mouth with sweetness, seductively fragrant, smooth and luscious on the tongue, chocolate is, for many, the quintessential romantic gift.

I have very fond memories of my first box of valentine candy. I was in third grade and my very first box was fairly typical - that red, smallish box covered with cellophane, and perhaps a lace doily, quite possibly purchased from Ben Franklin or Jerry's Drugstore.

The giver was a red-haired, freckled kid named Lamar. He handed me the box and almost ran away. I smiled and graciously received my first box ever! I was elated, thrilled, on top of the world. I ignored the fact that on the back of the box Susan's name had been crossed out and mine written over the top. What the heck? A little indecision on the giver's part was not going to squash my excitement.

I refused to share with friends, tucking the little box in my book bag to take home to my mother, but only after it had been knocked out of my hand on the school bus. I recovered the confections rolling around on the floor of the school bus, made muddy with February's vengeance. No matter, I wiped them off (good as new) and tucked them back among the little brown papers and prepared to present my bounty to my mother who was not very excited for me (I still don't know why.)

I do believe, if my memory serves me correctly, that was the very first and very last box of Valentine's day candy I every received until I met my husband, John, who bestows upon me beautiful, decadent boxes of melt-in-your-mouth treasures when he remembers.

If it weren't for Montezuma's harem there would be no chocolate as we know it today. No Hershey bars, no toblerone, no hot cocoa sipped by a roaring fire ... no chocolate? For its first 1000 years, chocolate was strictly a New World beverage, a sort of juice made from the crushed and fermented seeds of cacao trees.

Christopher Columbus brought it back to Europe in 1514, but not as a food stuff. Instead, the seeds, more commonly known as cacao beans, were displayed at the court of King Ferdinand of Spain as a novelty, an example of Indian coin age - money that literally grew on trees. From the Indians, Columbus learned that one could buy anything with these beans - food, clothing, slaves, women, even gold.

The Aztecs believed that cacao beans were brought from paradise on a beam of the Morning Star by the god Quetzalcoatl, and that wisdom and power resulted from eating the fruit of the cacao tree. The Aztecs would make a potent drink from the cacao beans, which they drank in order to produce vitality and enhance all kinds of activities, including the upkeep of a rather demanding harem.

The bitter, foul-tasting concoction call xocoatl underwent a name change to chocolatl (easier to pronounce for the Spaniards) and was reportedly an acquired taste, but one worth fostering. Cortez wrote in a letter to Charles V of Spain that "it builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits man to walk for a whole day without food." To make a long story short, the Spanish overstayed their welcome and eventually obliterated all that was the Aztec kingdom.

Little did anyone ever realize this one ill-fated fact of world history would result in a multibillion dollar enterprise and that hundreds of companies would be vying for the position of number one chocolatier? Or that this rich, delicious indulgence would become the icon of romance, the sparkle in a child's eye or a steaming cup of comfort?

As one who works with chocolate, I have my favorites. I love the rich creaminess of Callebaut, the industrial usefulness and price of Guitard and the decadence of Godiva.

All recipes have different results when using a different chocolate. When saying this, I don't mean the results will be any less satisfactory using one chocolate over another, but the baking times differ, the amount of support ingredients change depending upon the chocolate and sometimes the tastes are noticeably different. As goes with all ingredients, your masterpiece is only going to be as good as the ingredients you choose to use.

One thing is clear, with all spotlights on fat-busting diets and sugar-free living, chocolate seems to be an indulgence, to say the least. Laden with chemicals that will kill a small dog (no joke, the culprit is theobromine) and enough fat and caffeine to satisfy the most hedonistic of us all, it has long been regarded as an evil, sinful delight.

And while the reasons for this ancient confection's allure are the subject of many a scientific debate, one solid fact is emerging: chocolate could be good for the heart in ways other than just by improving romance. New and yet-to-be published studies are showing that antioxidants found in chocolate - dark chocolate and cocoa powder - may increase "good" (HDL) cholesterol levels by as much as 10 percent. Key word here is "may."

Of course, all things in moderation is the key to success in enjoying chocolate and benefiting from your cravings. You have to incorporate an occasional indulgence of any kind into a balanced and healthy diet, otherwise you feel cheated.

With all this contradictory information regarding chocolate, to eat or not to eat is the question. I say, eat now and question later. Happy Valentine's Day.