Dark Chocolate Help Blood Vessels.

Scientists, Jeffrey Blumberg of Tufts University in Boston, who led the study and colleagues of the University of L' Aquila in Italy studied 10 men and 10 women with high blood pressure.
For 15 days, half ate a daily 100g bar of specially formulated, flavonoid rich dark chocolate, while the other half ate the same amount of white chocolate.
Then each group "crossed over" and ate the other chocolate. White chocolate, which has no flavonoids, was the perfect control food because it contains all the other ingredients and calories found in dark chocolate, Blumberg said.

It's important to note that the dark chocolate we used had a high level of flavonoids, giving it a slightly bittersweet taste. Most Americans eat milk chocolate, which has a low amount of these compounds.
Writting in the Journal Hypertension, Blumberg's team said that when the volunteers ate that special dark chocolate. They had a 12mm Hg decrease in systolic blood pressure ( the top number in a blood pressure reading) and a 9mm Hg decrease in diastolic blood pressure ( the bottom number) on average.
Blood pressure did not change when the volunteers ate white chocolate. This is not only a statistically signnificant effect but its also a clinically meaningful decline, Blumberg said.

"This is the kind of reduction in blood pressure often found with other heathful dietary interventions." Eating dark chocolate also seemed to improve now the body used insulin, and reduced low density lipoprotien (LDL) or 'bad' cholesterol by about 10% on average.

The finding do not suggest that people with high blood pressure should eat lots of dark chocolate in lieu of other important medication and exercise, Blumberg said,
"Rather we are identifying specific flavonoids that can havve a benefit on blood pressure and insulin sensitivity."

Best Chocolate in World?

I have lot a recommendation from another professional pastry chef, This chocolate so good & best in world. This chocolate is very very expensive compare another good brand of chocolate in the Sabah. For me with high quality and expensive chocolate there is no best brand, it is a matter of taste preference. The high end range all have reputations for excellence, but are different to work with and taste different .

I have read before some statement from Volrhona, Executive pastry chef, Frederic Bau director of Volrhona's Chocolate Trainig School. he said " Anyway, we never say that we are making the best chocolate in the world - it has always been our customers who said so - Since 1922. If our message is that we are the best, then it is a bad message because taste is subjective. We have to stay humble because we know that today every chocolate company knows how to make good chocolate. But we try to stay different, we are born different so we want to remain different and build on this difference.

What Chocolate brand Pastry Chef Choice?

Callebaut (Belgian), Chocovic (Spain), El Rey (Venezuelan), Felchin (Switzerland), Kondima (German), Michel Cluizel (French), Scharffen Berger (US), Selbourne (Malaysia), Valrhona (French), etc. If you are not a pastry chef, you may not recognise these names as they are professional quality chocolates; commercial chocolate go by names such as Cadbury, Van Houten, Lindt, Toblerone, Hershey, Nestle, Cote d'Or, etc.

So what makes a good chocolate? Everybody knows how to make good chocolate, so it's just a question of strategy. from the selection of the beans to taking time over the processing - for example, we sun-dry the beans and slow roast at low temperatures and conducting quality checks at every stage of the production, so every brand chocolate has always been about making the best product that we can.
With high quality chocolate, there is no best brand - it is a matter of taste preference. The high end range all have reputations for excellence, but are different to work with and taste different.

Reading the label helps to ensure that you are getting pure chocolate; anything which has vegetable fat - such as palm oil - in it is not good. Vegetable fats are often used as economic alternatives to make more affordable " chocolate " and this alters not only their taste and texture but also their melting properties.
If you listen to chocolate aficionados, all they talk about is percentages. What does all these figure crunching mean? Good quality chocolate will list the cocoa content of the bar, which is expressed as a percentage to the sugar content. If a bar has 70% cocoa, that means it has a 30% sugar content. Of the cocoa content, half should be cocoa butter and the other half, cocoa solids, which will give you that melt in the mouth sensation.

When looking for quality, the general rule is not to buy anything with less than 50% cocoa content. The darker the colour of the chocolate, the higher the cocoa content but this alone does not guarantee flavour as all sorts of things come into consideration such as bean quality and production techniques. When in doubt, taste the chocolate: if it tastes good, it will be good when baked and make.

Sana - Sini 4

Insects candy company Hotlix has been creating weird sweets like chocolate-dipped-scorpions and bug lollipops. If you’re wondering about the safety of eating chocolate-covered scorpions, you should know there’s no danger at all. Once dead, scorpions are no longer poisonous and their stinger is cut-off just in case.

Basic guide to wine tasting to applying in Chocolate

Sight, swirl, smell and sip. These are the four basic steps to wine tasting, but what are you actually looking for when you do these steps? Here is a basic guide to wine drinking and tasting.

Here I no talking about wine tasting, but I used some method for “CHOCOLATE” applying the “ five sense” test can help you to determine what is good and decide what you like:

Look at it – the chocolate should be glossy and unblemished. But bear in mind that colour is not a good indictor of taste or quality. Different beans produce finished chocolate with varying colours from rich reds and coppers to dark browns. The darker chocolate is not a better chocolate.

Smell it – fresh chocolate should smell sweet and chocolatey. Like wine, chocolate has many associated smells. It can be floral, fruity or earthy, mild or intense. An undersirable smoky flavour is sometimes the result of drying the beans over wood fires, the ideal way to dry cocoa beans is under the sun, but this is time consuming and therefore more expensive. Carelessly stored chocolate may also absorb the surrounding odours.

Listen to it – good chocolate should “snap” cleanly with a crisp sound when you break it. It should not crumble or blend.

Touch it – it should feel silky and smooth and since chocolate melts just below body temperature, it should start to melt after a while.

Taste it – good chocolate will begin to melt immediately in your mouth. It should be smooth and velvety, not grainy. Look for a long finish with nuances of flavours. If it leaves a greasy taste in your mouth, that’s a sure sign that vegetable oil has been added. As the chocolate melts and releases its flavours, ask yourself if it tastes sweet, bitter, burnt, rancid, vanilla-like or simply delicious. In other words decide if you like it..