In 1824, 22-year-old Quaker John Cadbury opened a shop at 93 Bull Street, Birmingham, selling drinking cocoa he prepared himself. In 1831 he bought a warehouse in Crooked Lane to manufacture chocolate, and opened a factory in 1846. In 1861, he retired from business to devote the rest of his life to philanthropic work, including projects to protect poor children from dangerous jobs, reducing environmental pollution from factories, the Peace Society, and the Temperance Movement. Bourneville, the village built to house workers from the Cadbury factory, has been a dry village for more than 150 years; in 2007 its residents won a court case to stop the local supermarket from selling alcohol.
But enough about great Quakers! Let us get to the point: in 1868, John Cadbury’s son Richard sold chocolates in fancy heart-shaped boxes to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The marketing campaign was such a success that now, 157 years later, we still think love means chocolate.
As the owners of a cacao company, we are not complaining. We do not debate with people who say that chocolate is the world’s finest aphrodisiac. But we do sometimes wonder - is it true? Or is it just marvellous marketing?
THE SCIENCE
Cacao contains a natural love potion of psychoactive compounds.
Theobromine, which gives cacao its mood-boosting effect, works on the cardiovascular system, slightly increasing the heart rate (all of us who were ever teenagers know what that is a symptom of). It enhances blood flow, which gives the same ‘warm and tingly’ feelingas falling in love, and delivers nutrients and oxygen to our skin, making us more sensitive to touch. Theobromine stimulates the release of endorphins (which give us the lover’s high) and serotonin (feelings of bonding and security). Cacao also contains tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin.
In addition, cacao contains phenylethylamine (PEA), which the body releases naturally when we’re infatuated. PEA is the compound that incites tummy butterflies to riot. Cacao is far and away the richest natural source of PEA.
But that’s not all! Of all foods, cacao contains the most anandamide (the ‘bliss molecule’), which binds to cannabinoid receptors in the brain, creating cuddle-like feelings of joy, peace, and contentment. Cacao also contains a molecule that slows down the digestion of anandamide, making its effects last longer.
So science would indicate that cacao does indeed stimulate feelings similar to the feelings of love. However, any human will tell you that love is not a purely chemical experience, and that is where we enter the woowoo.
THE WOOWOO
The term ‘Aphrodisiac’ comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is important to note that Aphrodite represented love in a broad sense, not just infatuation (associated with Eros, Aphrodite’s son by Ares, the god of war) or lust (governed by Pan and his satyrs). Which is to say, an aphrodisiac is not just something to make you horny; an aphrodisiac is something that stimulates love.
The psychologist Robert Johnson said that “Sanskrit has ninety-six words for love, ancient Persian eighty, Greek three, English only one… Eskimoes have thirty words for snow, because it is a life-and-death matter for them to have exact information about the element they live with so intimately. An Eskimo would probably die of clumsiness if he had only one word for snow; we are dying of loneliness, because we have only one word for love.”
Cacao is not Viagra. It is not a shot of oestrogen or testosterone. It is, however, a potent natural miracle, an invitation to a depth of feeling we don’t get from bread or potatoes. Our ancestors saw the world as animate - they saw spirits in all things. Just as every human being has a different personality, so does every animal and plant. If the science is anything to go by, cacao must be a powerful spirit, because it engenders feelings so similar to love. And, whether we take easily to woowoo or not, those feelings are certainly something to appreciate.
We believe Valentine’s Day is more than an expensive prelude to a drunken romp. Transactional love is not satisfying to the human spirit. We don’t want mindless, haphazard sexuality; what we really want is to feel close to one another. We want to feel held, and known, in love. Cacao is not an aphrodisiac purely by virtue of its chemical composition; it becomes an aphrodisiac when we drink it in the name of love. Cacao opens a door to love, but we are the ones who must step through.
But that’s just our opinion. We're sure anyone who works with cacao probably thinks the same. We like to imagine John Cadbury telling love stories as he brewed hot chocolate in his little shop on Bull Street. There’s something about cacao that makes one a little prone to warm-headedness and woowoo. That, above all else, is why we consider it an aphrodisiac. With rose petals and coconut sugar,
Alistair, Rose, and the team at Soma Cacao
