Chocolate > How to grow Chocolate Cosmos

How to grow Chocolate Cosmos

Love Chocolate? Here's How to Grow Chocolate CosmosChocolate cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguinea) is both nose and eye candy for your garden. When it's in full bloom, mature blossoms on long, slender stems look like candy kisses on a stick and fill the late afternoon with the sweet scent of vanilla tinged chocolate. New blossoms hug the foliage of the plant, nearly concealing it with their numbers! Add to that the sweet chocolate fragrance and you end up with something very special.Although chocolate cosmos is endangered in the wild, transplants are easily found at most nurseries and garden centers in the spring. However, gardeners who are inexperienced in how to grow chocolate cosmos may overlook what seem to be small, messy tangles of miniature dahlia leaves, unaware that once established, prolific blossoms nearly conceal the foliage. Once in bloom, chocolate cosmos blossoms continuously throughout the summer into the first frosts of autumn.

If you're planning a gothic garden, chocolate cosmos is the plant for you. Sometimes referred to as black cosmos, dark maroon blossoms are so deep in color that they appear brown/black in late afternoon and evening. A native of Mexico, this half-hardy perennial is a sun loving plant that is moderately drought tolerant. You'll most easily grow chocolate cosmos from transplants purchased at your local garden center or nursery. Large clumps of established plants can also be divided to provide as many as three or four transplants.

Plant chocolate cosmos in organically rich, well-drained soil in a location that gets full sun. Keep the transplants moist until they established roots and you see the beginnings of some new growth. In the fall, when foliage dies back, cut plants back to about two inches from the root and over-winter them in a frost-free area. Chocolate cosmos is hardy in zones 7-10. In these zones, you may opt to cover the plants with a cloche to protect them from danger of frost..

Linda is the leading author of: <a href="http://www.gardening-guides.com ">Gardening Guides Hundreds of Free Articles on Flower Gardening, Fruit Vegetable and Container Gardening plus tips on Garden Design

Chocolate as Medicine

Which would you rather take to help prevent heart attacks and strokes? Chocolate or aspirin?

Amazingly, researchers in California have found that taking a flavonol rich cacao drink, equates almost exactly to taking a low dose aspirin, when it comes to blood thinning properties.
It seems that the cacao drink acts in a similar way to low dose aspirin in ensuring your blood flows freely -- and the platelets do not stick together, thus reducing the risk of stroke or heart disease.

But as usual with these studies, the boffins urge caution, they stress they are not advocating a couple of candy bars in place of your daily physician prescribed aspirin.
There are a substantial number of people who cannot tolerate aspirin, and possibly for those people, eating flavonol rich cacao may be useful to them.
You may also be interested to know that there are bioactive compounds in chocolate that promote well being, lessen the pain response...

Chocolate as Medicine

Chocolate > Chocolate as Medicine

Chocolove Introduces Chocolatour - A Limited Production, Single Origin Chocolate Bar

Chocolatour is a new line of single origin, vintage chocolate bars from Chocolove, a premium chocolate manufacturer. Chocolatour offers a world tour of chocolate.Eating a Chocolatour is an experience like tasting a bottle of fine wine. You can choose a specific terroir and vintage and if you taste carefully, you'll be able to taste something of the country and the weather.Because Chocolatour is made from single origin cocoa beans and weather affects the quality of the cocoa bean from year to year, Chocolatour will be made exclusively from origins and vintages that have high quality cocoa beans. Consequently, Chocolatour is made in limited productions and some origins may be available only once in a few years.2004's production was limited to 5,000 bars of each origin. Currently, Chocolatour is available in: Sao Tome dark chocolate with 70% cocoa content, Grenada dark chocolate with 60% cocoa content and Java milk chocolate with 33% cocoa content."The 2004 production offers the consumer...

Chocolove Introduces Chocolatour - A Limited Production, Single Origin Chocolate Bar

Chocolate > Chocolove Introduces Chocolatour - A Limited Production, Single Origin Chocolate Bar

New Orleans' Chocolate City Shirts Wear Well Across the Country

New Orleans, LA (ContentDesk) January 27, 2006 -- On Martin Luther King Day, Mayor C. Ray Nagin made headlines when he declared New Orleans will once again be a "chocolate city." Comments that have spawned a cottage industry of T-shirts.Within hours of Nagin's declaration, dozens of Chocolate City political satire shirts popped up. A search on Cafe Press for "Chocolate City" resulted in 63 original designs, including shirts, bumper stickers and coffee mugs. Cafe Press is an online merchant which allow a graphic designer to upload their original creations and begin selling immediately.Steve Apple, a New Orleanian who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina, hawks his "New Orleans a Chocolate City with Nuts" shirts at http://www.cafepress.com/chocolatecity2"The design was created purely for humor," Apple said, adding that he cannot wait for more inspiration at the Mayor's next speech.Other shops include imnotchocolate.com,...

New Orleans' Chocolate City Shirts Wear Well Across the Country

Chocolate > New Orleans' Chocolate City Shirts Wear Well Across the Country

How To Eat Less Chocolate

Chocolate contains important minerals, such as potassium and magnesium. It also contains vitamins B1, B2, D and E. It even contains antioxidants, subtsances that protect against cancer and old age. But let's not fool ourselves, you can get all these benefits in other foods: you don't have to eat chocolate to get these important nutrients.There's nothing wrong though with chocolate in moderation, but the key phrase here is 'in moderation', because unfortunately many people find it difficult to eat chocolate in moderation. If you're one of these people, try taking a good zinc supplement.

Many people find a regular intake of zinc, reduces their chocolate craving - you need to look for a zinc supplement that contains 10 mg to 15 mg of elemental zinc, and take one each day. Tea, coffee and alcohol interfere with the absorption of zinc, so make sure you leave a gap between taking your zinc supplement and drinking any of these.Zinc is a vitally important nutrient, so taking it is likely...

How To Eat Less Chocolate

Chocolate > How To Eat Less Chocolate

Best Recipes: Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Have a little fun with your plain ole cheesecake by adding some yummy chocolate chips. Another great way to use our favorite chocolate morsels.Crust1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs3 tablespoons margarine, meltedFilling3 8-oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened? cup sugar? cup flour3 eggs? cup sour cream1 teaspoon vanilla1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate piecesDirectionsPreheat oven to 350 degrees.Combine crumbs and margarine; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.Combine cream cheese, sugar and flour, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in sour cream and vanilla. Stir in chocolate pieces; pour over crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes.Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim of pan. Chill.

Garnish with whipped cream and red or green maraschino cherries..

Chocolate > Best Recipes: Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

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