Here’s Why Everyone Is Gaga Over Chocolates

It may seem simple that we like chocolates because it tastes nice. But there’s more to it than that- which relates to a fat/carbohydrates balance that is set right from the very beginning of our lives. 

 

Chocolate in the Toronto chocolate tour  is made from cocoa beans, which have been grown and consumed in the Americas for thousands of years. Long back, there was a drink made out of cocoa beans called xocolatl, which means ‘bitter water’.

This is because in its raw form, cocoa beans are intensely bitter.

In order to get at the beans, you first have to crack open the thick husk of the cocoa pod, releasing a pulp that an intense tropical flavour that is halfway between lemonade and a custard apple. It is known as baba de cacao, and is sweet, acidic and very sticky.

The beans and pulp are further sweated and are even allowed to ferment for several days before being dried and roasted.

The process of roasting helps to release a range of chemical compounds including 3-methylbutanoic acid, which on its own has a very sweaty rancid odour, and dimethyl trisulfide, the smell of over-cooked cabbage.

The combination of these and other aroma molecules helps create a very unique chemical signature that our brains seem to love. But the rich, chocolate smells and the happy memories of youth that those smells provoke, are just part of chocolate’s attraction.

Chocolate contains various interesting psychoactive chemicals. These include anandamide, which is a neurotransmitter whose names comes from the Sanskrit- “ananda”, meaning ‘joy, bliss, delight’. Anandamides help stimulate the brain in a similar way that cannabis does.

It also contains tyramine and phenylethylamine, both of which have similar effects to amphetamines. And finally, if you look hard enough, you will even be able to find small traces of theobromine and caffeine, both of which are well-known stimulants.

So what else does chocolate have us going for it?

Well, it even has a creamy viscosity. On a chocolate tour in Toronto, when you just put a bit into your mouth without even biting, you will notice that it rapidly melts on your tongue, leaving a lingering sensation of smoothness.