POR AMOR AL CHOCOLATE/ FOR THE LOVE OF CHOCOLATE

I love chocolate and consider my self a chocoholic. I decided to make a chocolate shop just for the "Love of Chocolate" I present to you the "Godiva chocolatier" one of my favorite brands.

Close up of right window

Closeup of left window

I made all the chocolates and boxes on this table

I took pictures of each counter outside the shop so you could see better the details of the chocolates.

Closeup of middle counters

right side counter

Inside view of shop.

Middle shelf

rightside shelf

left side and middle shelf

I started this shop many years ago. I have collected chocolate pieces made by Betsy Niederer, Lola Rener and Kerry Alexander for this shop. I also made all the Godiva chocolate boxes, bags, posters and chocolates that have the Godiva logo on it. The chandeliers were made by Tim Kraft and the litte girl dolls by Bonnie Justice and Carol Mcbride.

We tend to think of chocolate as a sweet candy created during modern times but chocolate dates back to the ancient people of Latin America who drank chocolate as a bitter beverage. Chocolate comes from the seed of the cocoa tree. The first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people were the Mayas and the Aztecs. The Mayas called the cocoa tree "cacahuaquchtl" and the word chocolate comes from the Aztec word "xocoatl" which means bitter water. The Mayas cultivated the earliest know cocoa plantations from Central America to the northern portions of South America. It was consider by them as the "god's food". The Aztecs believe that wisdom and power came from eating the fruit of the cocoa tree and that it had nourishing, fortifying and even aphrodisiac qualities. The cocoa beans were also used as currency. In 1528 the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez took the cocoa seeds to Spain where new recipes were created. The Spaniards mixed the cocoa beans with sugar,vanilla, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cinnamon. Eventually the drink popularity spread throughout Europe. I hope I did not bore anyone with some of the history of chocolate.