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Chocolate: A Tasty Delight

My Mom has some old Christian magazines for teaching classes at church. In the magazine is a section called Let Creation Speak. These articles talk about different parts of God's creation, usually an animal, and explain all the amazing facts about that creation. I thought I would share a few of the articles with you, so here is the first: Chocolate: A Tasty Delight
 
Was your last birthday cake chocolate? The rich, sweet taste of chocolate is always popular at parties and on holidays. Chocolate is one of the nicest
flavors God created for us to enjoy.
   Over a thousand years ago, Mayan Indians of Central America harvested cocoa beans. They made a bitter drink called chocolatl from the roasted cocoa beans. Neighboring Aztecs believed  drinking chocolate gave a person wisdom and energy. Only rich people could buy it. The Aztecs used cocoa beans as money, too. Ten cocoa beans bought one rabbit.
   Columbus first took cocoa beans to Spain. Later, in 1528, another explorer, Cortez, brought the the chocolate-making tools. The Spanish rulers added sugar and honey to the bitter drink. It was so delicious, they refused to share, keeping the recipe a secret for nearly 100 years.
   Finally, news about the delicious delight spread across Europe. It reached the New World when James Baker of Massachusetts opened a chocolate business is 1755. In 1849, the first chocolate bar was made in England. Even later, in 1879, the Swiss added milk, creating milk chocolate. At the same time the Hershey Bar was born in the USA.
   Central America was the first producer of cocoa beans, but Africa is the leading producer today.Cocoa beans grow on cacao (kuh-KAY-oh) trees. These trees only grow in rain forests close to the equator. God created cacao trees on the third day of creation 
     (Genesis 1:11-12) And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding  seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
The cacao tree can grow about 60 feet tall, but is kept at 15 feet for easier harvesting. Flowers grow on the trunk and thicker branches. Midges (flies) pollinate the blossoms and the pods begin to grow. Pods ripen in four to five months. One tree produces 20 to 30 pods per year. A nine-inch pod has 20 to 50 dark purple beans surrounded by white pulp.
   First, the beans are roasted until they're a rich brown. Next, the outer shell is removed and the inside is broken into small pieces called nibs. Finally, nibs are heated and ground into smooth paste. The result is cocoa butter and liquid chocolate. These ingredients are mixed with sugar, vanilla and milk to make the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate people crave.
  Scientists study the nutritional value of chocolate. There's some proof that eating it may keep your heart healthy. Chocolate is a good source of energy. Thirty-five chocolate chips can provide enough food energy for an adult to walk one mile. If you want to walk around the world, you would have to eat 875,000 chips!
   Warning: too much chocolate can make you sick. But any chocolate is poison for puppies. Keep your chocolate where your dog can't munch on it.
   Chocolate is one of the many surprises that God created for us to discover. Ecclesiastes 3:11a says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Only God can tuck a delightful flavor like chocolate into a bean, in a pod, on a tree, in the rain forest!
   This was just a short story written in the magazine that I thought I would share, since I love chocolate. Hope you liked the article! Do you know any interesting food facts? Leave a comment on my blog's comment section or Facebook.
   Also, an important message: The next two posts will be published on their normal days, Monday and Saturday, but will not be shared to Facebook. I am sorry for the inconvenience this might cause to anyone who sees my posts through Facebook, but please be aware that the posts are there to read at 12:30 P.M. Central Time. Thanks for understanding!

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