Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
- Title: Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
- Author: Mort Rosenblum
- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: North Point Press (October 17, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0865477302
- ISBN-13: 978-0865477308
I bought this book a while back because it looked interesting. Little did I know that I’d be going to Paris for a short vacation this summer, or that France is a hot-bed of chocolate.
I really liked this book – it was very accessible but also provided a tremendous amount of information about chocolate. For example, the original trees are called criollo, and that there are two more kinds of cacao trees (or perhaps three). The author explains in some detail how beans are grown, how fragile the trees are, and what needs to be done to turn the cacao beans into chocolate.
Most interesting, dark chocolate is probably good for you – its low in fat and sugar (its the milkier chocolates that are bad for you). Also, milk chocolate is harder to make – it requires emulsifiers and other things to get the cacao to mix right with the milk.
I hope to visit two fine chocolate shops while in Paris (based on recommendations in the book) – look in this blog for where I end up and how I like the chocolate!
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July 13th, 2007 by alephnaught