Cacao Nibs_ A Little Context!

Raw Cacao

Many people consider eating chocolate a “guilty pleasure.” But the reputation of chocolate as a junk food should more accurately be attributed to the harmful effects of commercial processing and refining techniques, and the other ingredients commonly added, most notably white sugar. All chocolate is made from the cacao (cocoa) bean, and cacao beans in their natural, unprocessed, unadulterated state are rich in nutrients and beneficial to health.

Cacao nibs can come from Ecuadorian Arriba Nacional, a well-fermented cacao with lots of delicate high notes.

Cacao beans are protected by a paper-thin shell, which you remove before eating. When the shell is removed, the bean often breaks into small pieces, called nibs.

Nibs share all the nutritional benefits of the whole bean with the added convenience of having the shell removed.

Why Unprocessed Chocolate is Good for You

Antioxidants: Cacao has more antioxidant flavonoids than any food tested so far, including blueberries, red wine, and black and green teas. In fact, it has up to four times the quantity of antioxidants found in green tea. Health benefits of these antioxidants include:

• Promote cardiovascular health - Help dilate bloods vessels, reduce blood clotting, improve circulation, help regulate heartbeat and blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, and reduce the risk of stroke and heart attacks.
• Protect from environmental and metabolic toxins - Help repair and resist damage caused by free radicals, and may reduce risk of certain cancers.

Neurotransmitters: By increasing the levels of specific neurotransmitters in our brains, cacao promotes positive outlook, facilitates rejuvenation and simply helps us feel good.

• Serotonin - Cacao raises the level of serotonin in the brain; thus acts as an anti-depressant, helps reduce PMS systems, and promotes a sense of well-being.
• Endorphins - Cacao stimulates the secretion of endorphins, producing a pleasurable sensation similar to the “runner’s high” a jogger feels after running several miles.
• Phenylethylamine - Found in chocolate, phenylethylamine is also created within the brain and released when we are in love. Acts as mild mood elevator and anti-depressant, and helps increase focus and alertness.
• Anandamide - Anandamide is known as the “bliss chemical” because it is released by the brain when we are feeling great. Cacao contains both N-acylethanolamines, believed to temporarily increase the levels of anandamide in the brain, and enzyme inhibitors that slow its breakdown. Promotes relaxation, and helps us feel good longer.

Essential Minerals: Cacao beans are rich in a number of essential minerals, including magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, potassium and manganese.

• Magnesium - Cacao seems to be the #1 source of magnesium of any food. Magnesium balances brain chemistry, builds strong bones, and helps regulate heartbeat and blood pressure. Magnesium deficiency, present in 80% of Americans, is linked with PMT, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and joint problems.
• Sulfur - Cacao is high in the beauty mineral sulfur. Sulfur builds strong nails and hair, promotes beautiful skin, detoxifies the liver, and supports healthy pancreas functioning.

Essential fats: There is a misperception that chocolate is fattening. In truth, the fats in cocoa butter are healthy fats. Cacao contains oleic acid, a heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, also found in olive oil, that may raise good cholesterol. Also, substances found in cacao are known to help reduce appetite.

Important note- To fully benefit from chocolate’s wide array of nutrients, eat chocolate that is as close to its natural state as possible. Whole cacao beans and nibs are best. You lose many of the health benefits when you eat commercially produced chocolate.

Cacao: Its History and Use From the Time of the Aztecs to Today

The cacao tree has been cultivated in Mexico and Central and South America for thousands of years, and it has been so highly valued that some Native peoples once used its seed, or bean, as currency. The Aztecs believed cacao to be of divine origin, and both they and the Mayans used the roasted bean in the famous beverage Chocolatl, together with vanilla and other flavorings.

In the early 16th century, Columbus brought sacks of cacao back to Europe, but he did not realize its economic value. Then, in 1519, Cortez brought cacao back to Spain, and it was soon made into a luxury drink for the upper classes. By the 17th and early 18th centuries, chocolate was considered a cure for many illnesses, as well as a catalyst for provoking passion, although it was still too expensive for the general populace. Finally, in the 18th century, chocolate houses were established in London, making chocolate available to a broader spectrum of society, and their popularity quickly surpassed that of the coffee houses.

Today cacao is planted on over 43,000 square miles worldwide. Forty percent of production is from Cote d’Ivoire, while Ghana and Indonesia produce about 15% each, and Brazil, Nigeria, and Cameroon provide smaller quantities.

How Cacao is Harvested

Cacao beans are harvested today in much the same way as they were by the Aztecs. After the pods ripen, which takes 5 to 6 months, they are removed from the tree and carefully cut open with a machete, and the cacao beans are extracted.

After harvesting, the beans are placed on banana leaves in large wooden boxes and left to ferment for several days. During fermentation, complex chemical changes take place. The bitterness of the bean is reduced and the rich chocolate flavor begins to develop. The beans are dried after fermentation, and during this drying process, the brown color develops and further flavor development occurs.

The Different Varieties of Cacao

There are three main cultivar groups of cacao beans grown today:

• The Criollo group, which was used by the Maya, is the most rare and expensive of the three. Only 10 to 15% of cacao trees are Criollo, and they are small and difficult to grow. The chocolate made from the Criollo bean has a delicate and complex array of flavors. Often referred to as the “King of Cacao,” Criollo is highly prized and is used by many of the new “micro chocolate makers.”
• The Forastero group makes up about 70% of the cacao grown today. Forastero trees are easier to grow and significantly hardier than Criollo, resulting in more affordable beans. Well-prepared Forastero is what most of us are used to eating in chocolate.
• Trinitario is a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, and it makes up about 20% of the cacao beans produced today.

Our cacao beans and nibs are Ecuadorian Arriba Nacional, a well-fermented Criollo with lots of delicate high notes. The Nacional is the type of cocoa bean that gave Criollo its reputation. It has a tangy berry note integrated with a delicate chocolate flavor.

Different Kinds of Chocolate

Many types of chocolate are made from the cacao bean:

• Chocolate liquor is made from roasted, ground cacao nibs (the meat of the cacao bean)
• Cocoa butter is the fat of the cacao bean, and is solid at room temperature
• Cocoa powder is made by separating most of the cocoa butter from the liquor
• Unsweetened chocolate is pure chocolate liquor, containing about 50% cocoa butter
• Bittersweet chocolate contains at least 35% liquor, along with cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla
• Semisweet chocolate contains the same ingredients as bittersweet but has a greater sugar content
• Milk chocolate has only about 10% chocolate liquor, and also contains about 12% milk solids
• White chocolate does not contain any chocolate liquor; it gets its flavor from cocoa butter

Using Cacao Beans and Nibs at Home

If you are using whole beans, simply crunch them between your fingers to loosen and remove the peel. You can use the beans whole or grind them in a spice mill/coffee grinder or food processor. Then add them to smoothies, teas, desserts, raw food bars or any dish that calls for the delicious flavor of chocolate. They are especially good when used in recipes with our vanilla beans. Here are some more detailed suggestions for enjoying the exquisite flavor of cacao:

1. Try eating them straight, a tablespoon at a time. Chew thoroughly and experience the taste extravaganza of raw (or roasted) chocolate.
2. Sprinkle on yogurt, granola, desserts, etc.
3. Make a delicious chocolate shake with dairy or nut milk, coconut oil, a frozen banana, agave nectar, and cacao beans.
4. Add agave nectar, yacon sweetener, or honey to the raw cacao nibs and chew!
5. Freeze cacao nibs with sweeteners (agave nectar or honey is fantastic). Eat cold.
6. Blend powdered cacao into herbal teas with the Peruvian superfood maca.
7. Add cacao nibs to ice creams for the healthiest chocolate chip ice cream in the world.
8. Create a raw chocolate bar! Blend the following raw ingredients together: cacao, agave nectar, carob powder, maca, coconut oil, and cashews. Pour into a mold and freeze. Eat cold and experience the truth about the food of the gods!
9. Grind whole beans or nibs into a powder and combine with coconut oil to make a chocolate sauce. Use in cookies, brownies or other raw or baked desserts.
10. If you have a Champion juicer, you can make unsweetened baker’s chocolate by running the nibs or unpeeled whole beans through it. To make a “liquor” run the powder through the Champion several more times until it separates into powder and liquid.
11. Make a scrumptious chocolate nut fudge. In a food processor or blender, start with your favorite nut (cashews or almonds are particularly good) and add coconut oil, agave nectar or honey, coconut flakes, cacao beans, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

Cacao beans keep well in cool, dry conditions.

Article from: Live Superfoods!

An Artist with Life

Wolfgang Laib creates what I call, meditation in motion made visual.

Hiberation Responses, i.e.; Job Hunting in A Chilly Economy

Let this be a winter of creative resourcefulness. The down-turned economy is a good opportunity to move away from the corporate paradigm, into work that holds meaning and emphasizes craft. Ways of using the brain, the eyes and the hands that feels better, more intelligent_ natural.
Like a monk practicing sitting meditation, the most radical ways to continue to wear away at the ownership by the elites moving one's inner life toward conscious freedom, is to quietly do what brings each one true "Happyness!"

I am an artist, and I have always approached the world of work laterally; cultivating work skills by taking on new areas of employment that also fuel my art interests. After three decades, I have a skills-rich résumé that reveals a plethora of discipline, thus providing me multi-directional opportunity in the market-place. I can use this hand-built foundation fluidly, depending on what is going on in the marketplace. Course, I have a solid center to my varied expertise: that of a visual artist. Meaning, I keep focused on how any job opportunity may feed my artistic skills, as I venture out into the big world of employment-search "buffets." All employment is much more choice-centered!

Health-wise, to there more successfully this winter, I am yearning for more soaking time! Today, I am posting about making one's own bath salts and enjoying what this blogger has to say, about making various possible "job-hunting relief" recipes.

Here's to more healthfully steaming out, all those job hunting aches and pains, as we move forward into a new year, a new administration in Washington and renewed changes-for-the better for-all, in this country... ah-h-h-h-h.

Unctuously Good Taste Or Good Marketing? Does it Really Matter? You decide!

Can happiness be bought? To find out, author Benjamin Wallace sampled the world's most expensive products, including a bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 8 ounces of Kobe beef and the fabled (notorious) Kopi Luwak coffee. His critique may surprise you.

Benjamin Wallace is a journalist and author of The Billionaire's Vinegar, the true story of the world's most expensive bottle of (possibly phony?) wine. He's been a contributor to GQ. About Benjamin Wallace

The Ginger Path Back

I seem to be making steps back from the abyss of homelessness; a hard lesson in beginning to own other neglected facets of my own personal power. I am not quite 100% back on my feet, yet simultaneously amazing acts of kindness and generosity keep showing up each time I renew my commitment to this developing stage of conscious attention to my own life. This has included a stay in the rural-side to doggy-sit my commission portrait subject, "Rufus." Yes, I have painted and made more progress on his portrait! I will upload photos of this stage in the painting when I can get a camera to do so. Meanwhile you can visit my main art blog here.

I will add that my life is ready to face my needs for engaged, meaningful, healthy friendships, and indeed online, this past year has seen some of that develop. I have traveled a long way on my own for way long enough now. Some of this history reflects flat-out wrong choices I made in earnestness and naïveté. I can say that I am more than ready to change this now. Stay tuned. Make contact. Do let me hear from you, won't you?

A New Design Assignment & The New Aesthetics

EPEA Vision

The Cradle to Cradle Principles:

1) Waste equals food
2) Use current solar income
3) Celebrate diversity

Cradle to Cradle Vision

Imagine a world where human industry operates exactly like a blossoming cherry tree: Every factory, every building and every product is as giving as a cherry tree with its flowers.

Imagine a world where our buildings are like trees: They cover their energy needs by harvesting solar power, produce food and oxygen, create habitat for other species and change with the seasons.

Imagine a world without pollution and waste: Products are made from materials that are beneficial for humans and their surroundings.

Imagine a world where humans can be glad that their actions benefit those around them and the constraints to reduce, minimize, and decrease according to the current "Cradle to Grave" paradigm are a distant memory.

This is the world that Cradle to Cradle offers. And it is a matter of design that starts with the intention to apply conventions found in Nature:

* Waste equals food
* Use current solar income, and
* Celebrate diversity

Forget reactionary doubts like: That's too expensive. That's idealistic. That would never happen. Because it is happening as these examples show:

* Product cases

* Service cases

***Between my love for healthy, organically grown food and all things aesthetically conscientiously made_ ever since I listened to the Monticello Dialogues on New Dimensions Radio, I have been completely won over by what Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart are up to!

I HAD to...

Borrowing from my newest food blog find here, I had to post this image for those of us pure of dietary intention, and those of us who struggle from time-to-time say, with money!

How would you reproduce THIS luscious recipe in the raw? I know it can be done!
This sort of a treat occasionally, is near perfect!