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A fascinating guide to the history and medical uses of cacao. The Secret Life of Chocolate is a book about chocolate.
Not the sweet, mass-produced fatty confection most of us are familiar with, though.
This book is about old-school chocolate; pre-Colombian, Central American, bitter-spicy-foamy-intense blow-your-socks-off chocolate; chocolate beverages made with toasted cocoa beans, water, and indigenous plants.
Today there are many different forms of drinking chocolate in Latin America, most of which reflect European (Spanish) influence, incorporating sugar, cinnamon, and milk.
The aim of this work is to peel back the years of cultural cross-pollination and anatomize the original Cacao-based beverages, which were richer, more complex, more potent, and darker (in every sense) than modern forms of chocolate.
This book delves into the ancient history of the human relationship with the cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao; it dissects the pharmacological properties of chocolate to the fullest possible extent; and it divulges the mythical and magical associations of human interactions with this incredible plant.
List of contents
DISCLAIMER
A WORD ON ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART I: CHOCOLATE ROOTSCHAPTER ONE - A potted history of chocolate
CHAPTER TWO - Bodies of chocolate
PART II: MEDICINAL CHOCOLATECHAPTER THREE - The chocolate apothecary
CHAPTER FOUR - Pharmaceutical chocolate
CHAPTER FIVE - Chocolate, love, and bondage (Part I)
CHAPTER SIX - Associates and accomplices
CHAPTER SEVEN - Chocolate, love, and bondage (Part II)
CHAPTER EIGHT - Chocolate formulary
PART III: METAPHYSICAL CHOCOLATECHAPTER NINE - Death by chocolate
CHAPTER TEN - The dark side of Venus
CONCLUSION
ENDNOTES
APPENDICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX
About the author
Marcos Patchett is a medical herbalist. He graduated from Middlesex University's Herbal Medicine BSc course with a first class degree honours and the Elsevier science prize for plant pharmacology in 2005. He worked as a medical herbalist in King's Cross for several years, specialising in complementary care for people living with HIV, and practiced from Neal's Yard remedies' Therapy Rooms in Covent Garden and Notting Hill. He worked as a dispenser in Middlesex University's Archway training clinic, and later went on to become the clinical supervisor for Western Herbal medicine BSc and MSc courses at Middlesex's Integrative Medicine training clinic in Hendon. Marcos is also an enthusiastic student of Renaissance and Medieval astrology. He is frequently invited to give talks on contemporary herbal medicine and traditional medical astrology internationally. Marcos currently lives and works in London.
Summary
A fascinating guide to the history and medical uses of cacao.
