IWSG, Chocolate, and Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts: Sadira Stone, Patricia Josephine, Lisa Buie-Collard, Erika Beebe, and C. Lee McKenzie!

This month's question is: What's the strangest thing you've ever googled in researching a story?

I don't know that I'd call anything I've researched strange. Interesting yes, but not strange. I haven't researched anything like what kinds to poisons to use, or how long does it take to choke a person to death, or is there a ghost of JFK haunting the White House, but I have done some very interesting and in depth research on, among other things, chocolate. 

Cocoa beans come from this fruit. The seeds are
surrounded by a sweet meat.The trees are native
to Central America and only grow within a small
 latitudinal range.

Did you know that cocoa beans were literally used as money? A 100 beans could get you a jackrabbit or a turkey hen. A tom was worth 200. A turnkey egg, an avocado, or a fish wrapped in corn husks was worth three beans. Among the Maya and Aztec only the wealthy and royals drank hot chocolate - which was laced with chili - because doing so meant they were literally drinking their wealth. It is because of these two facts that we get the term about money not growing on trees, which at one time it really did. 

Supposedly chocolate in candy form didn't make an appearance until the 19th century. However, there's strong indications that soon after the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs and Mayas nuns added sugar to chocolate and were the first to make candies.  In 1544 it was a delegation of Maya nobles to the court of Prince Phillip who first brought chocolate to the Old World, not Cortes as some would have us believe. The Spanish crown became so enthralled with drinking chocolate they wanted to keep it secret and only a few monks, hidden away in Spanish 
monasteries, knew the recipe for preparing the beans. But eventually the secret was leaked and it became the new rage in Europe.

Pedro de Toledo

By the way, it's because of drinking hot chocolate that we have saucers. Sometime between 1639 and 1648 the Viceroy of Peru, one Pedro de Toledo the Marques de Mancerea, became concerned when a lady spilled chocolate on her gown. He had the problem corrected by having a silversmith make a plate with a raised ring in the center of it. A small cup could then be set on the plate without fear of it slipping off. The "mancerina," or saucer, was born. This lead to potters making matching cups and saucers.

Here endth the lesson.

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for, what else, chocolate!

What are you thankful for? Do you have a favorite kind of chocolate? A favorite candy bar? And what's the strangest thing you've ever researched?