By Paul F. Vang
For ButteNews.net
Photo, courtesy of Paul Vang
There are a lot of things happening in February, such as the President’s Day weekend, the Great Backyard Bird Count, and lengthening days that give us hope that spring is coming.
And then, right in the middle of the month, it’s Valentine’s Day, that annual celebration of love and romance that somehow lets us forget that even if we’re graying and wrinkled, we can pretend that we’re still handsome or beautiful and ready for romance.
I confess that my fondness for Valentine’s Day goes back to childhood and an infatuation with the pretty girl from the farm next to ours. Beverly’s birthday was on Valentine’s Day, and an annual occasion for a birthday party. Of course, I married my college sweetheart, and I haven’t seen Bev for decades. Even so, I still think of Bev on Valentine’s Day, though it’s my wife and I that will share a bottle of champagne and some chocolates.
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” Charles M. Schultz
Chocolate is derived from the fruit of the cacao tree. The fruits are pods, which may have up to 40 beans in a pod, and the beans are dried and roasted in the process of becoming chocolate. The cacao tree is native to equatorial Latin America, and there is archeological evidence of Olmec Indian pots and pans from around 1500 BCE, with traces of theobromine, the stimulant found in chocolate and tea.
The Mayas and Aztecs adopted cacao beans, making beverages from ground beans, and even using beans as currency. Spanish explorers brought chocolate back to Spain, where its popularity spread across Europe, and then came back to North America on Spanish trading ships.
Chocolate was used primarily in beverages until the mid-19th century when chocolatiers developed chocolate bars, using cocoa liquor, sugar, and cocoa butter. Names of early chocolate entrepreneurs such as Nestlé, Lindt, Cadbury, Mars, and Hershey, live on in modern chocolate companies.
“Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world’s perfect food.” Michael Levine.
There has been a lot of scientific research on the complex qualities of chocolate in nutrition and health, and, yes, that includes sexual health. Cocoa powder and chocolate components can produce a transient feeling of well-being, which can have anti-depressant and aphrodisiac effects.
“Chocolate is an anti-depressant, so it’s ideal when you start gaining weight.” Jason Love.
“Chocolate symbolizes, as does no other food, luxury, comfort, sexuality, gratification, and love.” Karl Petzke.
Chocolate is at the heart of a local business, Shepperd’s Candy, which has been making and selling chocolates and other candies from its kitchen and store on Harrison Avenue since 1954, with Ron and Mary Gallardo its current owners.
While Christmas and Easter are the top holidays for candy sales, Valentine’s Day is their third-best holiday for chocolate sales. They prepare for Valentine’s Day by ordering a supply of heart-shaped boxes.
It’s a pretty good bet that Shepperd’s Candy, in any shape box, has been and will continue to be, a part of countless romantic evenings in Butte and beyond.
“When we don’t have the words, chocolate can speak volumes.” Joan Bauer
Life is uncertain. Have dessert first.
That’s my logic in writing about chocolate before champagne, though in most Valentine’s Day dinners, I’d suggest starting, not ending with champagne, or sparkling wine.
Champagne had its start in France, specifically the Champagne region, where people have been growing wine grapes since Roman times, though wine with carbon dioxide bubbles was considered a fault when it happened, usually when new wines were bottled at the beginning of winter. When things warmed in spring some bottles still had residual sugars and yeasts that would start a secondary fermentation, producing those pesky bubbles.
English merchants, who imported large quantities of wines from Champagne saw the results of this secondary fermentation and developed controlled processes for making sparkling wines. When French winemakers realized the growing popularity of sparkling wines they got in the game, as well, though this time on purpose.
In any event, the French government eventually decreed that only sparkling wines made from Champagne region grapes could be labeled as Champagne and that rule continues to be the policy of the European Union.
Today, virtually every wine-making region around the world produces sparkling wines. Wine shoppers, even in the Wild West, can find good choices of sparkling wines from France, Australia, or various wine regions in the U.S. For a number of years our daughter lived in California’s Bay Area and when we took trips to California, we usually reserved a day for wine-tasting, which often included one or more tastes of bubbly.
So, why is sparkling wine associated with Valentine’s Day and romance?
First of all, when we open a bottle of bubbly it almost always becomes a special occasion. There’s something about the ritual of taking the foil off the top of the bottle, removing the wire cage that keeps the cork from accidentally popping, and finally, carefully removing the cork and pouring the sparkling wine in a tall glass called a flute.
“Champagne makes you feel that it’s Sunday and that there are better days around the corner.” Marlene Dietric
To be sure, sometimes we lose control of the cork, and it goes sailing to ceiling light fixtures. It’s a good idea to make sure that nobody is going to be hit by flying corks. When done right there should be just a whisper of escaping CO2 when we finish pulling the cork, or as our guide at a Napa Valley winery described it, “As quiet as a nun passing gas while in the Vatican.”
Carbon dioxide bubbles in sparkling wines quickly take the alcohol in the wine into our bloodstream, which explains why people sometimes act giggly, or start flirting after a few sips of sparkling wine.
“Come quickly. I am tasting the stars.” Dom Perignon.
As with most wines, sparkling wines pair well with food. If you’re splurging on lobster or crab legs for Valentine’s Day dinner, a bottle of dry sparkling wine will be the perfect choice to go with those tails and claws.
Finally, some consumer warnings. Any suggestions for chocolate and Champagne to start a romantic evening are intended for consenting adults only. Further, there are no guarantees. Results may differ.
