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Kit Kat Candy Bar Ice Cream Cake On Christmas Celebration
Christmas Gift Idea: Chocolate for All
Everyone loves chocolate and it’s one of the best and
easiest Christmas gifts to buy. We show our love for chocolate by eating
billions of pounds of it each year. And I’m not just talking about Snickers and
M&Ms, although they are my favorites. I’m talking gourmet––prepared in a
sophisticated and meticulous fashion, using high quality ingredients. Gourmet
chocolate makes a rich, creamy, luxurious gift, and is an all-time favorite
holiday present to give and receive.
Chocolate dates back as far as 2000 BC and is thought to have
originated in the Amazon. It is derived from the cacao tree and was used by the
Maya culture, where they would harvest, ferment, roast, and grind the seeds
into a paste. When mixed with water and other ingredients, “this paste made a
frothy, spicy chocolate drink," yet the taste was very bitter.
In both the Maya and Aztec cultures, chocolate, then called
xocoatl or cacahuatl (meaning “bitter water"), played an important role in
religious and social lives. To the Maya, the cocoa pods symbolized life and
fertility, and were often used in religious rituals; they were referred to as
the gods' food. The Aztecs believed that wisdom and power came from eating the
fruit of the cacao tree, and that it had nourishing, fortifying and aphrodisiac
qualities. Interesting too is the fact that cocoa beans were used as currency.
Chocolate has evolved throughout history from a bitter drink
to its current forms today, creating a multi-billion dollar industry with
plenty of controversy surrounding its "dark side". History also tells
us that at the end of the fourteenth century, Columbus was the first to bring
back cocoa beans from the New World to Europe and he presented them to King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, yet their potential was overlooked. It was
Hernando Cortez who brought cocoa beans to Spain in the fifteenth century and
saw their value. We can also credit Cortez and the Spanish for being the first
to blend the bitter drink with sugar and other ingredients, moving us toward
the mixture that we enjoy today. However, it was the French who were the first
to package chocolate as a gift, when in 1643, the Spanish Princess Maria
Theresa was betrothed to Louis XIV of France. She gave her fiancé an engagement
gift of chocolate, packaged in an elegantly ornate chest.
Christmas is a time for giving and chocolate is a
centerpiece each holiday season. So if you're like most holiday shoppers, who
frantically need ideas for Christmas presents or need to buy “last minute”
Christmas gifts, don't forget about chocolate. Why not “gift it” this
Christmas? When you give a gift of chocolate, you’re not just giving a piece of
candy, but a piece of history –– if it is good enough for kings, queens and
other royalty, it’s good enough for all, especially those you love. With
Christmas right around the corner you may need more ideas for giving chocolate
gifts –– try these to make the 2009 holiday season the sweetest, most luscious
to date.
1. For a Christmas party or dinner.
2. A corporate gift for a customer or business associate.
3. Your boss or employee whom you don’t know very well.
4. A teacher or other school official.
5. Your neighbor.
6. Your friendly Postal Service worker.
7. Your picky, unpredictable in-laws.
8. A distant relative, figuratively or literally.
9. That person who "has everything" — we all know
a few of those.
10. A Christmas treat for you and your family. Just don't
eat the whole box by yourself.
You don’t have to wrap a candy kiss or a Hershey bar in a
bow; you can buy ready-made and beautifully packaged chocolate (gourmet and
more) in a holiday chocolate gift basket and you don't have to leave your home
to shop. The Internet offers a global marketplace when it comes to online
Christmas shopping; just make sure you select a safe and convenient site that
offers enticing Christmas gift ideas as well as a holiday gift guide so you can
be confident that you find that perfect chocolate gift for all on your gift
list, making it a very special Christmas.
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