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| Homemade raspberry lemon chocolates |
It's really no secret that I am a chocoholic. My world proclaims chocolate as a completely separate food group and is part of my daily calories be it in some form or matter. Even at work all of my software demos includes the topic of chocolate, much to the dismay of my coworkers. One of them has even told me they are completely sick of chocolate because of me. =)
When we lived in Seattle Ian and I used to live by Theo Chocolate, one of my favorite chocolate brands on the planet. There you can go visit the factory and do a bunch of taste testing after lunch. Sometimes I'd skip lunch all together and go H.A.M. on the samples. That place is special to me. I love Theo's!
Lately Ian and I have been eating relatively clean diets: 80% no grains, no refined sugars, and mostly veggies and meat on special occasions. During this time I've been reading about going raw (which we do on occasion for some meals) and one of the items that really caught my attention was raw chocolates. Raw chocolates are basically any kind of raw cocoa beans that have dried then either stone ground or cold pressed and then reheated to less than 110 degrees. Sometimes they separate the cocoa butter, sometimes they don't. Doing this preserves the antioxidants and nutritional value of the bean. Once considered the "Food Of The Gods," raw chocolates have been used for many centuries in Mayan/Aztec cultures as a kind of currency and to treat ailments from depression to virility. Science has shown that raw chocolates have the highest form of antioxidants in comparison to acai, gogi, and other plant matter. Skeptics say that there's really no such thing as raw chocolates because anything that is heated loses some kind of nutritional value. Personally, I think they are a bunch of haters.
A friend of mine recently went to Equador to see a buddy of his who owns www.therawfoodworld.com and told me a story of them eating a bunch of raw foods made with raw Ecuadorian cacao and feeling this amazing high. It was nothing he's ever felt so intensely before when eating normal chocolates. Another girl told me that she was feeling very deprived of intimacy and had some raw cocao chocolate cream pie and it satisfied her desire....not exactly sure what "satisfied" means in this case, but I will let your imagination wander. Obviously it was the theobromine at work here.
Sweeteners that are used in raw chocolates include honey, dates, coconut palm nectar, and xylitol (made from stevia leaf). Natural sweeteners are an acquired taste and one should be careful of the glycemic index of each of these. Even though some of these items may have high glycemic indexes it's very clear that they use substantially less sweeteners in comparisons to the refine sugar-laced counterparts. In a world where many of today's illnesses are caused by too many refined sugars and high fructose corn syrup, I'd rather go natural as much as I can.
If you have never tried raw chocolates now is the time to give it a whirl. The price of their chocolates are probably 4x the amount of Theo's chocolates, but you also have to consider that they are not sweetening with refined sugars, milk, or any gluten products to hold it together. These online raw chocolate stores are popping up online all over the place and I've been having fun discovering new (online) chocolate stores.
My most favorite brand of raw chocolates is Gnosis Chocolates. They are by far the best and have the most unique flavors out there.
http://www.gnosischocolates.com. The story about the owner/chocolatier is pretty inspiring as she was a naturalpathic psychologist who created these to help her patients with symptoms of depression and so forth. Amazing eh? I want a doctor who can cure with me chocolates! Her Aphrodisia bar is probably one of the best chocolates I've ever had in my life. However at the hefty price tag of $9.25/bar, I can't see myself buying from her internet store a regular basis. Ummm, yeah sorry Ian! I did buy that candy bar for that price...sorry honey! The other ones were less though...
Another raw chocolate brand worth mentioning as my 2nd favorite is Portland's very own Stirs The Soul chocolates. You can find this at any Whole Foods or New Seasons around town. They are about $3.69 a pop but feature great flavors like chocolate lavender, gogi cashew cayenne, and more. http://stirsthesoul.com/
These chocolates are great because I don't have the desire to eat the whole thing. Having just 1 piece (maybe 2 max) is just enough to satisfy me for the day. I like that it doesn't do much damage to my blood sugar, too. I used to have serious blood sugar crashes where I would be shaking if I didn't have something carby or sugary to quell the shakes. It is really a beautiful thing to be clean of that addiction while still enjoying my favorite foods.
Now I'm kind of at a crossroad. I still have a TON of regular chocolates but now I want to make my own raw chocolates. What do I do with all of this? I decided I'm going to make hand crafted chocolates and truffles! Once the last bag of chocolates (they are organic chips) are gone, it's good bye except for special occasions. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Theo's and will always have room in my diet of their coconut curry chocolates on a very special occasion, but I really want to make my own raw chocolates. I asked Ian if I can just quit my job and make raw chocolates for a living and he didn't like the idea. It's a saturated market and very tough to break into. Haha...and honestly the ones who are really passionate about it took years to perfect their craft before officially making it big. As much as I love chocolates, I don't have years to sit around and figure it out.
The ingredients to make raw chocolates are not cheap but they are cheaper than buying the candy bar. If you are lucky and I really love you don't be surprised that I will be giving you this as gifts. =)
