Chocolate: Sweet Science & Dark Secrets of the World's Favorite Treat

This is a used book in outstanding shape for a quarter of the price new, I will look here next time I want a book...100% recommend this store. As for the book very interesting and well written...so far

Always some repetitions in these type of books. But also very good research and easy to read. Good for anyone with deep interest in chocolate.

comprehensive presentation of the history and uses of Chocolate. This is great. Well written, easy and interesting read.

Good book.

Great book about the history of chocolate. Enjoyed reading.

Personally, I found this book to be an easy and engaging nonfiction work on the natural history of chocolate. The book is aimed at the young adult (12- to 18-year-old) age group and is a great resource for middle and high school students as well as their teachers. I suspect it will best serve as an excellent companion or extra-credit assignment book for any number of classes focused on history, biology, social studies, economics, health, or geography. At 228 pages, it a bit long for a work aimed at young adults; yet the print is large and it is full of interesting black-and-white images; also the flow of the text is broken up with recipes, curious historical stories, and the like. The question is: will young-adult readers be captivated enough to read this book cover-to-cover without being pushed to do so as part of a class assignment? My guess is no. Most children will not want to read this title on their own for the pure pleasure of reading nonfiction. But this should not be a reason not to purchase this book for a public or school library collection, nor for a teacher not to add the work as a companion text or extra credit book in any number of different academic subjects. The story of chocolate crosses many different disciplines. Not all students are interested in all subjects. In this book, the focus of the subject matter frequently shifts among history, sociology, anthropology, biology, and nutrition. Some readers will find all these subjects fascinating, but others may lose interest at the crossroads between two very different academic treatments of the same story and put the book down because they’ve lost interest. That’s always the challenge when an author attempts to interpret the world through the study of one particularly fascinating, but narrow, aspect…in this case chocolate. However, if a child’s love for chocolate can serve as the impetus behind him or her choosing to read this book, then I think it serves a very good purpose. The book nicely demonstrates how one particular thing (in this case a newly discovered seed pod of a new fruit from the tropics) can have a profound impact on the history of the world, an impact far beyond any that anyone could ever have dreamed from the beginning. Young adults need to understand this lesson. This phenomenon is happening at an accelerated rate all around them in today’s modern world through the exponential growth of technology and science. I enjoyed this book quite a lot, but did find myself skimming parts. At times, the book read like a textbook. At other times, there were charming stories. Some sections seemed to get bogged down in too much detail. But I stuck with the book and finished it…and I’m glad I did. Chocolate is a sizable and complex topic. It’s obvious the author fell in love with her topic and wanted to cover as much as she could. In my estimation, she did a very good job of narrowing down the material to what might best appeal to young adults. In addition, she was able to write about this topic in prose that, while aimed at young adults, still respected their ability to deal with challenging ideas and complex sentence structure. It’s too bad the illustrations were done on matte paper rather than glossy paper, but doing otherwise would have made this book unnecessarily expensive. Public and school libraries should definitely purchase this book. And teachers across many disciplines should not hesitate to add this to a list of suggested additional reading tiles for their class.

I was so inspired after reading the book Chocolate Sweet Science & Dark Secrets that I went out and bought my own cacao trees (well seedlings really). I am now in the process of building my own mini rainforest, and in six or seven years I'll be able to make my own chocolate! Anyway, Ms Frydenborg's book on chocolate is really enlightening and thought provoking. I think it is aimed at YA's, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Almost every topic related to chocolate is covered. The subject matter is handled chronologically starting with the first civilizations to use and cultivate the cacao trees. From the Olmecs, to the Maya, the Aztecs and Incas. The author shows how the cacao was revered by the Mesoamericans and how the beans were used as currency, food, and in religions ceremonies including human sacrifice. Next in the time line comes the invasions of the Spanish & Portuguese and the migrations of chocolate to Europe. The decimation of the native population of central and South American is covered along with the slave trade. Next the author covers the industrialization of cacao that transformed the bitter Mesoamerican drink into the chocolate bars of today. Chocolate makers Hanau & Baker, Nestle, Lindt, Hershery are also included. From here the time line moves to current day and to environmental issues and how the loss of the Amazon rainforests is jeopardizing the future of the cacao tree and of chocolate industry itself. The author talks about how various groups are promoting sustainable farming, organic growing, and living wages for the workers. How scientist are mapping the DNA of the different varieties of cacao trees, and how they are hunting for and cataloging the elusive native trees in the hopes of reintroducing the hardy, disease resistant varieties into declining groves of commercial trees. This book on chocolate includes many diverse topics, but all the topics are woven in an interesting and easy to read story. In the end all the different parts combine to tells the amazing story of chocolate. I will never look at a chocolate bar the same way again.

I half-remember a news show -- maybe Dateline, maybe 60 Minutes, maybe some indie documentary -- going to Africa and offering some cacao growers a taste of chocolate, something most of them had never tasted. Keep that in mind as you read this. Chocolate is just one of many things in this world that the First World takes for granted that are largely a product of the developing world. This book tells its history from both sides -- how it went from an odd tree with vaguely lemony fruit from the northern Amazon basin, to a treat beloved of the upper classes of pre-Columbian Mexico, to its spread across the world as a major cash crop and culinary staple, and along the way the history of class divides, slavery, and political and economic intrigue that encouraged it. There's science -- the genetic origins and chemical quirks of processing that make cacao the plant it is, and how all of that was and is still being studied. There's even a couple recipes, including an early Spanish description of the way the Aztecs made the xocolatl beverage, the original Ruth Wakefield Toll House cookie recipe, and what looks to be a pretty decent vegetarian chili. Now, this is a book meant for a teenage reading level. However, apart from the rather hideous choice of font (a slab-serif akin to, but not identical to, 70s standby Lubalin Graph), you don't get the feeling that the author wrote down to the intended audience; in fact, although it might be a bit of a challenge to a young teenager, it would fit in fine in either the kids' or adults' section. There's a good number of pictures (in black and white in my review copy, though I imagine a good number will be in color in the finished book). And while I can't speak for what you might take away from it, it definitely gave me the feeling that someone really ought to be making sure that the cacao growers of Africa and South America get a chance to try the finished product of their labors on a somewhat regular basis.

Good book, finally arrived after six weeks