08.31.11
UPDATE: Reaping the Benefits
Rebecca Gelston

 

Earlier this month, I put together a round up of recent reports and studies that heralded the health benefits of chocolate. It only took three weeks since my original update for yet another report to look at the health benefits of my favorite dessert: chocolate.

According to the most recent report, published by the medical journal BMJ, chocolate consumption can be linked to lower rates or stroke, coronary heart disease, blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions. Of course, all of these studies come with the caveat that moderation is critical when discussing the health benefits of chocolate.

Still, this is more good news for chocolate lovers! 

 

Beverages, News
chocolate, health benefits
08.09.11
Reaping the Benefits
Rebecca Gelston

My reward for finishing a long run? A tall glass of icy cold chocolate milk (made with a hefty serving of our Sweet Dark Chocolate Sauce). Why you ask? Because it’s a wonderful treat and I read that the carbohydrates and protein found in chocolate milk are beneficial to muscle recovery. It’s nice to be able to justify a small indulgence so let me share a few of the other health related benefits of chocolate:

Claim: Chocolate improves eyesight

Study: England’s University of Reading

Link: http://on.msnbc.com/pDtPb7

Claim: Chocolate is a 'Super Fruit’

Study: Hershey Center for Health & Nutrition

Link: http://bit.ly/o9F8mJ

Claim: Dark chocolate may lower high blood pressure

Study: Medical College of the University of Cologne (Germany)

Link: http://bit.ly/nhx899

Claim: Chocolate can prevent heart attacks

Study: The Karolinska Institute (Stockholm)

Link:...

Beverages
chocolate, dark chocolate, health benefits
05.17.11
See you in Chicago!
Michael Szyliowicz

The Mont Blanc Gourmet team will be at the NRA Show 2011 this weekend in Chicago, and we hope to see you there! This year, our booth is located at 1175E in the Organic and Natural Pavilion, and we’ve invited UTZ CERTIFIED Good Inside to help inform convention-goers about sustainably-sourced coffee, cocoa and tea practices.

UTZ CERTIFIED Good Inside is a market-oriented sustainability program for cocoa, tea and the world’s largest supplier of sustainable coffee. As architects of sustainable supply chains, UTZ CERTIFIED ensures a balanced standard regarding People, Planet and Profit. Unique to the UTZ CERTIFIED program is the focus on entrepreneurship of the farmer through cost efficient environmentally and socially responsible farming practices.

Our Director of Business Development Mark Crawford sits on the Board of Directors at UTZ CERTIFIED Good Inside, and our team wanted to inform NRA attendees about sustainable sustainably-sourced coffee, cocoa and tea...

Beverages, Diary of a Chocolatier, Innovation, News, Sustainability, Tradeshows, Travel
chicago, chocolate, cocoa, coffee, nra, sustainable, tea, travel
02.03.11
Book Review – “The Devil’s Picnic” By Taras Gresco
Michael Szyliowicz

Why have some of the best things to eat and drink been banned over the centuries? The diverse list of beverages includes coffee, chocolate, and absinthe, with savory items including poppy seed crackers, and unpasteurized raw cheese. In the book The Devil’s Picnic, Taras Grescoe makes a strong case that each of the foodstuffs he studies has been banned for reasons related to morality and not to health. The dozen chapters each deal with a different banned food, detailing the reasons why authorities believed that the general population should not be consuming them. Coffee, for example, was banned by Kha’ir Beg, the chief of police in Mecca during the 1500s, because he believed the drink was an intoxicant. Fortunately, the Sultan of Cairo was a coffee aficionado and overturned the ban, allowing the continued spread of coffee from the Middle East into Europe where it soon became a dominant beverage. Chocolate suffered a similar fate during the 1600s in Mexico when a bishop, tired of seeing women drinking cups...

Book Reviews, Diary of a Chocolatier
book review, chocolate, coffee
12.07.10
Hot. Chocolate.
Michael Szyliowicz

Chocolate's resurgence as a drink continues. On a recent trip to Santa Fe, I visited Kakawa, a small specialty chocolate shop that features an entire menu of flavored hot chocolates. Kakawa has about a dozen different chocolate sauces, all made in-house, that are used in different versions of the beverage and served in small, demitasse cups. The drink is rich and thick, so, as I mentioned in an earlier post, larger sizes are unnecessary. By combining chocolate with flavors like spicy pepper, orange, rosemary, vanilla, and other fruit and herb combinations, Kakawa serves drinking chocolate with an interesting twist. The rich, thick hot chocolate is an excellent treat that makes you slow down and enjoy what you are sipping. It’s a great change of pace, and I hope the idea catches on with other shops.

Beverages, Diary of a Chocolatier, Travel
chocolate, coffee, drinking chocolate, orange, rosemary, santa fe, spicy pepper, vanilla