Last week, we bought a kilo of dried cocoa seeds, because our stock from last time is almost done.
Over the years, we noticed that commercially made tablea or cocoa blocks are usually not pure. Sometimes they add peanuts, because it is cheaper than cocoa, to add volume to the blocks. But because my Mom and I are allergic to peanuts, everytime we drink hot chocolate from commercial cocoa, we had allergy attacks.
At one point, I thought I was allergic with cocoa chocolate. Fortunately, during my teenage years, a cocoa tree grew in our yard that in time produced so many fruits, more than we were able to eat. And we personally dried the seeds, roast it and make it into cocoa blocks. Then I tried drinking hot chocolate from what we made and I had no problems at all. No allergy attacks! From then on we decided not to buy commercial cocoa ever, instead we made it ourselves to make sure that it is 100% pure and organic!
Now, we do not have a tree anymore. But we can always buy dried cocoa seeds in the market.
Here's how we make our very own tablea. It's hardwork, but it's all worth it!
- Roast the seeds.
- Peel the roasted seeds.
This is how the roasted cocoa beans look like.
- Mill the roasted beans.
We do not have a miller so we bring our roasted beans to the market to have it milled.
- Shape the milled cocoa.
Others have a moulder. But since ours is just for our own consumption, we don't bother about it much.
- Let it cool down to solidify.
We put ours in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Store in a container.
BENEFITS OF DRINKING HOT COCOA
We love making our own cocoa chocolate because of the health benefits, aside from the fact that we love the taste of it. Research shows that cocoa contains a variety of chemicals, which include antioxidants called flavonoids. The flavonoids help our body to process nitric oxide, causing relaxation to veins, thus could improve blood flow, help lower blood pressure, and improve heart health. These compounds might also reduce the activity of chemicals inside the body that promote inflammation or blockage of blood vessels.
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The American Association for the Advancement of Science states that drinking hot chocolate can help one think better. The flavonoids help increase the blood flow and oxygen to the brain. Since dementia is caused by a reduced flow of blood to the brain, researchers believe that it could be treated with cocoa.
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Hot cocoa also contains antioxidant called gallic acid. The antioxidant gallic acid is used to treat internal hemorrhages, albuminuria (the presence of albumin in the urine, which can indicate kidney disease) as well as diabetes.
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Five years ago my father suffered from heart attack due to diabetic complications which led to having heart by-pass surgery. Thus, we made it a point to have a healthy diet and include drinking hot cocoa into our everyday breakfast in order to help heart attack from recurring (for my Dad) and avoid from occurring (for the rest of us in the family), and to keep blood pressure at bay.
So everyday, in our breakfast table we have our very own hot cocoa drink!
Enjoy the steaming hot chocolate! ☕
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