Laughing Cacao

A friend of ours, Eric, is a chocolate connoisseur. And I don't just mean that he likes to eat chocolate. He is obsessed. He even started his own company making this amazing cacao bean alternative to coffee and a few other cacao goodies.



I unabashedly invited myself over to Eric's place for a tasting of Chava, his cacao drink. Nick and I really just wanted to buy a bag and drink it up, but Eric insisted that he would not sell us a product we hadn't tried. So at 10:00 on Wednesday night, he brewed a few cups for us to sample.



The effects of drinking Chava are, in my opinion, far superior to the effects of coffee. First of all, contrary to popular belief, cacao does not contain caffiene. It actually contains a stimulant called theobromine, which is similar to caffiene but less intense, so you don't end up with coffee jitters. Cacao also contains anandamide, a "bliss chemical" that is can also be found in marijuana. The combination is unbeatable. You feel energized but relaxed, like you could accomplish absolutely anything . . . and your first goal will be world peace.



Eric also shared some of his 200-lb stash of fine chocolate with us. He is a friend of Art Pollard, the owner and founder of Amano Artisan Chocolate. Amano is a relatively tiny chocolate company in Orem, Utah, but they have proven to be a major force in the chocolate industry. They won gold at the international Academy of Chocolate Awards in London last year. Amano also recently swept the national Olympics of chocolate with the same chocolate bar, winning gold, silver, and bronze.



I really liked the Madagascar chocolate, but there was another chocolate called "Dos Rios" that I liked even better. It has incredibly bright bergamot orange, cinnamon, and clove notes. I kept sneaking pieces of it while Eric worked himself into a chocolate frenzy, getting more and more excited about the many health benefits of cacao the longer he talked.



Anyway, as soon as Nick and I finish this round of HCG, I will definitely post some chocolatey recipes. In the meantime, I will continue drinking two cups of Chava a day and fantasizing about Dos Rios truffles.

Birth of a blog

This is my first blog post ever, and I'm a little intimidated. It's like starting a new journal. All the blank pages stare you in the face, challenging you to fill them with something worth reading.

I decided to finally cave in and start a blog for a few reasons:

1) I am obsessed with food. I read about it, daydream about it, and talk about it constantly. I'm an addict. My hope is that this will relieve my husband and friends from having to listening to my endless babbling if I can funnel my thoughts into one productive place. (My fear is that this might actually make it worse. It's hard to imagine that I may not have hit rock bottom yet.)
2) Journeys are more fun when you've got company. I have been delving into the world of raw vegan food, sustainable foods, superfoods--basically all things healthy and hippie. I have been really grateful for the blogs of others, so I thought I should try to be a contributing member of blog society.
3) Peer pressure. My friends have threatened to start a blog and post in my name. A word to the blog bullies in my life: Identity theft is not a joke. Millions of families suffer everyyear.

If there's anything you'd like me to post about (I know I owe a lot of people recipes), feel free to contact me and I will be happy to oblige. Otherwise, I will write about my many food adventures as they come.