Chocolate is a healthy food with aphrodisiac qualities. It is great for our heart in more than a romantic way. As chocolate is great for cleaning our blood vessels, and as we need a high rate of blood being pumped throughout our body when we exercise or make love, chocolate is the answer. Chocolate tastes great and it is prepared in multiple forms, in such a way it is very difficult not finding the right taste and texture for us.

Chocolate is great for breakfast,, for Valentines Day, Mothers Day, for a romantic encounter, and it is awesome if we want to say I love you, or just to let somebody know we care. It is great for kids and adults alike.

There are so many presentations we should not have any problem finding the right one for every opportunity. It is lovely to be given gourmet chocolate that you would not normally buy for yourself, but you could also include a jar of chocolate sauce, a tin of luxury hot chocolate or some chocolate cookies. It is a well known fact that chocolate is the most famous desert known to men and women. There is no culture on planet earth without a great recipe we can enjoy for any ocassion. You are entitled to prepare, serve and enjoy the most gorgeous sweet treats on earth.

Chocolate is made from the seeds of the tree Theobroma cacao. Theobroma is Greek for 'food of the gods'. The ancient Aztecs venerated the cacao tree and used its beans as a form of currency. They saw the tree as a source of strength and wealth and assigned their god Quetzalcoatl its guardian. Chocolate stimulates the release of endorphins, natural body hormones that generate feelings of pleasure and well-being. Chocolate contains a natural 'love drug'. Tryptophan is a chemical that the brain uses to make a neurotransmitter called serotonin. High levels of serotonin, produce feelings of elation, even ecstasy - hence the name of the designer drug that also works by increasing serotonin levels.

Scientist from California University published in 2001 the results of investigations conducted by them which suggests that comsumption of certain chocolates can modulate the synthesis of certain hormone-like compounds or cicosanoids which may help to maintain cardiovascular health by reducing blood vessel vulnerability and platelet clumping.

Fine chocolate is produced with the highest quality natural ingredients and each variety has its own distintic character which is carefully enhanced by the best cooks around the world.

As chocolate is made using the best cocoa beans, the final product contains many of the healthy compounds from plants, including minerals, like iron copper, zinc and magnesium and great antioxidants like polyphenols, like those found in tea and red wine, scientifically proven to be very healthy.

Besides being very tasty, chocolate is very important as part of healthy eating patterns. The variety of chocolates, like dark chocolate which is strong flavoured and less sweet which final flavour and quality depends on the appropriate mix and quality of chocolate beans as the manufacturing process itself. Chocolate is considered by some as the food of gods. Chocolate history is fascinating. From the fisrst cocoa beans prized by the Aztecs to the production in Britain of the first known commercial chocolate bars, this history is fascinating and complex at the same time.

There are so many varieties of blends, that it is possible to find great books with mouth watering recipes which celebrate the intriguing history and culinary popularity of one of the most evocative world's treasures.

More than 3000 years ago the Mayans and Aztecs consumed chocolate. They used cocoa beans as currency. In 1502 on his fourth and last voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus came upon a canoe that was transporting agricultural products including cocoa beans. He seized the content of the canoe and brought cacao back to Spain. Chocolate became popular in Europe decades later when the Spaniards added sugar to the cacao.

Chocolate candy bars, after-dinner mints, brownies, truffles, doughnuts, chocolate milk-if it has chocolate in it, we eat it. Hot, cold, solid, liquid, over ice cream...even over meat?! Yes, a Mexican sauce called "mole" uses unsweetened chocolate in a sauce that is served over meat. It's a versatile flavor, chocolate. Chocolate has been blamed for acne and tooth decay, but research has found that it is innocent of these evils. That must have made lots of people worldwide sigh in relief: the chocolate industry sells five billion dollars worth of chocolate each year in the U.S. alone. The U.S. is only the eighth largest consumer of chocolate. Switzerland, whose citizens eat more than 21 pounds per person each year, leads the world in chocolate consumption.

Chocolate contains approximately 380 known chemicals, so it is no wonder it is difficult to figure out why chocolate is such a favorite treat. And who is to say that it is only one or two things in chocolate that cause us to feel happy? Many of the chemicals in chocolate are found in other foods, yet we do not buy heart-shaped bananas to show that special someone that we care for them. It may be a unique chemical combination that gives chocolate its edge over vanilla, berry, and caramel. Chocolate has been said to improve mood.

Chocolate is a great food, and a great treat for friends, loved ones, and a great companion for romantic encounters.