It’s not that I’m lazy that I’m reposted again, we’ve been out of town 7 of the last 9 days, and the trip home yesterday was brutal. I have several posts in the works (mostly food but it will have to include an airline rant), will get to it asap. In the meantime, please to enjoy:
From the Discovery Channel
March 29, 2006— The Medicis, the family that dominated the Italian Renaissance, used chocolate as a powerful political tool to impose the Florentine taste in European courts, according to an exhibition that traces the history of chocolate from its arrival to Europe in the 16th century.
The exhibition, at the Civic Museum of Monsummano Terme, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Florence, brought to light a 17th century letter which contained the secret jasmine chocolate recipe of Grand Duke Cosimo III, hidden in a footnote.
Double chinned, bovine eyed, chocoholic Cosimo III (1642–1723), was determined to put to an end to Spain’s supremacy in making chocolate.
Indeed, the Spaniards managed to turn the Maya and Aztec’s spiced cocoa drink into a delicate, sweet drink aromatized with vanilla, musk, and amber. Read the rest of this entry »
