Chocolate

One of the most seductive and pleasurable foods, enjoyed everywhere in the world, is chocolate. Chocolate is a slightly psychoactive substance but it has some health benefits when consumed in its purest forms and in moderation. Much of what is sold as chocolate today, such as the candy bars in the check-out aisles in grocery stores, barely approximates the richer varieties of the confection like the brands produced in Europe. Most high-quality chocolate contains fewer additives, less milk, and less sugar than the average Hershey bar. Although European manufacturers produce some of the highest quality and best known chocolate in the world, the cocoa plant is native to Central America. The Aztecs enjoyed chocolate mostly as an unsweetened beverage, adding spices like chili peppers and vanilla to enhance the flavor of the naturally bitter drink The term "chocolate" comes from the native Mexican language Nahuatl. Much like coffee, chocolate...
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