Heavenly Delights

Sue Lawrence tempts us with some soft, gooey and mouth watering treats.

It is a little-known fact that the reason eating chocolate is such a gloriously deep, satisfying experience is that it is the only substance to melt at blood temperature. Once melted, chocolate gently explodes into a warm, sensual liquid, filling your mouth with an incomparable, hedonistic feeling that is so good that you just want to go on and on savouring it.

I know I am not alone in agreeing with chocoholics about what was regarded by the Aztecs as “food of the Gods”. Emperor Montezuma is reputed to have drunk hot chocolate as an aphrodisiac and regularly retired to his harem fortified with “xoco-atl”. He did, however, first drain his golden goblet of the exotic drink (it was flavoured with chillies and cinnamon in those days), for chocolate was forbidden to Aztec women.

Given the response of most women now when confronted with a gooey hot chocolate pudding or a slab of dark, moist chocolate cake, it is perhaps hardly surprising. Gustatory pleasure was obviously a man's prerogative in the 16th century.

But now we can all savour the delights of once forbidden fruits. Ever since Cortes brought back the cocoa bean to Charles V of Spain in 1528, it has been revered. It was even recommended as an alternative to gin by the Quaker families (Rowntree, Fry, Cadbury, Terry) in the 19th century. Thankfully it is not flavoured now with chillies and cinnamon but with sugar, vanilla and often milk; it is also bought for pleasure, not as a substitute for “mother's ruin”.

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• By : Sue Lawrence
• In : Food
• Issue : 50
• Page : 44
• Words : 935