The Chocolate Thread

“Women wanted for chocolate experiments
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Erm.. you're supposed to eat the chocolate, not wear it
Scientists are hunting for new volunteers who will be required to eat chocolate every day for a year.
Boffins studying the potential health benefits of dark chocolate at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, Norfolk, need 40 women to test specially made bars.

Participants must be post-menopausal and have type 2 diabetes to help see whether flavonoid compounds in chocolate can reduce the risk of heart disease.......

more.......
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Women_wanted_for_chocolate_experiments&in_article_id=708094&in_page_id=34

”

“Hershey's Push Into High-End Chocolate Is Bittersweet

July 23, 2009: 02:41 PM ET


NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Hershey Co. (HSY) is dropping some newer lines of premium chocolate, but the company may have to find new ways to compete in the high-end candy business when the economy rebounds.

Hershey said Thursday that it will no longer be marketing the Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) brand of premium chocolate and is also winding down its high-end Cacao Reserve line. Sales of pricier chocolate have slowed as consumers have tightened their belts and retailers have been reluctant to give up shelf space to lower- performing products.........more.....

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200907231441DOWJONESDJONLINE000880_FORTUNE5.htm”

“That is disappointing. On related news HPM picked up a dagobah spicy 72% cacao dark chocolate bar for me. Cayenne and cocoa nib bits. I likey.”

“"dagobah", isn't that from Star Wars?

Crash?”

“Yes, they named their company after a star wars planet. It is good chocolate though.”

“looks like my post was deleted which basically said

as a weekend warrior sci-fi geek and chocoholic, should have heard of that before

it sounds like it might make a good snack to put in the home theater due to the movie theme”

“I've read that this brand is AWESOME, never tried it though.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Slitti&x=12&y=10


Check this out: 100% Cacao

http://www.amazon.com/Slitti-Gran-Cacao-Italian-Chocolate/dp/B000OWNF8S/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1271679812&sr=8-9

”

“way too much chocolate laying around here in the office.

oh wow...never seen 100% cacao”

“cheap dark chocolate from Aldis... not bad, actually. (65% cacao)”

“oh wow is right! you *gotta* taste it and make a report fight here!”

“Does all chocolate contain caffeine?”

“I believe so...”

“I don't think it does in pure form.

http://www.rawcacao.com/”

“Cocoa powder
Cocoa powder contains caffeine. Depending on the degree of fermentation and the type of cocoa beans, the caffeine content will vary from 0.1-0.5%. In cocoa powders made from well fermented African cocoa beans the caffeine proportion is in general very low: 0.1% or less.

Chocolate
Levels of caffeine range from 2 to 23 milligrams in a typical 40 gram bar of milk chocolate and from 2 to 7 milligrams in a 227 gram glass of chocolate milk; both are the equivalent of that found in cups of decaffeinated coffee. A 28 gram piece of bittersweet (dark) chocolate contains from 5 to 35 milligrams of caffeine, still well under the approximately 75 milligrams of caffeine found in a 227 gram cup of instant coffee or the 140 milligrams found in the same amount of brewed coffee.

Cocoa butter
A study by Kiefer & Martin to determine the amounts of caffeine and theobromine in chocolate products found only small amounts of theobromine (0.008%) and caffeine (0.038%) in cocoa butter.

References:
The cocoa manual. Cacao de Zaan, 1993, p 91-92)
Chocolate and health. A scientific overview for the health professional. Chocolate Manufacturers Association of the USA, 1997”

“Good info. Thanks.”

“So unless I'm reading it incorrectly, it looks like I can't escape it entirely even though the quantities can be fairly small.

Thanks gang.”