Saturday, April 4, 2015

Hot Cocoa Is My Starter Fuel.


Hot cocoa is my starter fuel.  Not any cocoa, but the one with the addition of cayenne pepper to the dark chocolate base.  I buy it in Seattle at Central Market.  I have one more container of the Equal Exchange Organic Spicy Cocoa stashed in the wooden box on the pantry shelf. This is the same wooden box, where I hide the packages of dark chocolate chips. (Whom, you might ask, am I hiding these from?  I live alone.  You could steal my computer, but you would not find my chocolate.)
 
(That wooden box on the left, not labeled "chocolate hidden here".  )
 I have begun contemplating the drive two hundred and sixty-two miles to Seattle over the Cascade Mountain Range to restock on cocoa, but than that’s silly.  I could buy a six-pack on line.  I’ve been 
considering that I could combine a trip to purchase hot cocoa in Seattle with a trip to the Korean spa in the suburb of Lynnwood.  Than, the trip would seem like a medicinal one. I am just nervous about that low cocoa stockpile.  The trip would help heal the tendon in my hip, ease my anxiety over low cocoa reserves and lift my spirits with a little outing. 

Actually hot cocoa with cayenne is good for my health too.  I have not been sick now for over two years.  Not a cold, not the flu, not an upset stomach. Nothing.  I traveled for seven months household to household, in tight flight quarters, on metros and buses.  I credit the cayenne.  Look it up.  The health benefits for building immunity, blocking cancer, curing upset ailments and other good stuff are extensive. 

I think that I got hooked on the combination of cocoa and cayenne when I lived in Mexico City near Chapultepec Park.  One day I encountered a little stand, which was selling chicken mole.  For those of you who have not had mole, it is made of chocolate, a ground seed like maybe pumpkin and also various peppers, usually including cayenne. I loved the spicy chocolate then and now think of my morning mug of hot cocoa as a really liquid form of mole. 

My other hot cocoa is a rose.





I first spotted this variety of a rose while traveling and purchased one of them some years back.  It has cocoa coloring opening to orange blooms.  Frost has now killed the three that I have owned.  I replaced the first one from a Seattle nursery and another one locally.  But when I lost my last hot cocoa rose this past winter and could not find a replacement locally, I was bemoaning the fact to my L.A. friend Art.  He took it upon himself to ship me a replacement one!  Good friends understand cocoa necessities.  Thanks, Art. 


The rose is hardening off, a gardening term that means getting used to the temperatures outside of a green house before being planted in the garden.  I’ve decided to plant it in a more sheltered location in the lee of the garden shed this time.  Maybe by the time it blooms, I’ll manage to squeeze in a little trip to Seattle.  Health reasons.    

Photo of Cocoa Petals.  Credit Pinterest.



1 comment:

  1. I share the Mexican chocolate love. I keep a watch for your favorite brand bu haven't seen it since last year.
    I am still nibbling the Easter egg from See's ~

    ReplyDelete

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