Ancient use

The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) is native to Central and South America, and grows wild from southern Mexico to the southern edges of Amazonia. It is generally believed to have been domesticated in Mesoamerica originally by the Mayans roughly 2400 -3350 years before present.

The name Theobroma is derived from the Greek words θεός (theos), meaning "god," and βρῶμα (broma), meaning "food". It translates to "food of the gods." The seeds were revered as a divine gift by the Aztecan and Mayan people who made a bitter beverage consisting of cacao seeds, maize, possibly vanilla, and Capsicum peppers >(Capsicum peppers oddly enough, are a genus of the nightshade family Solanaceae . Shoutout /u/Solanaceaeenthusiast).

The Mayan word 'xocolatl' means 'bitter water'.

The cacao seeds once had so much value that they were used as a form of currency. These seeds were fermented, dried, and roasted. The shells are removed, leaving the cacao nibs. The nibs are crushed into a thick paste called chocolate liquor (despite the name, it does not contain alcohol), which is made up of cocoa solids and cocoa butter.

Cooked cacao beans contain upwards of 600 different chemicals that include but are not limited to:

• Caffeine - a stimulant.
• Theobromine - a mild stimulant with possible psychoactive effects. Also used to treat high blood pressure.
• Tryptamines - make you feel good
• Phenylethylamine- make you feel good
• Phenylalanine - Amino acid converted to dopamine (long story short)
• Flavonoids - antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune sytem benefits

No wonder, ancient people considered cacao divine they were melting faces way before Grateful Dead or Shpongle. I'm sure not long after its discovery, drum circles got way mo' better. Who knows the Amen break, Drum N Bass, and PsyTrance, all may have been invented before Christ. (citation needed)

Don't go chasing god with hersheys though, because you'll probably get sick first.

Disclaimer I am not recommending people try to intoxicate themselves with cacao beans. Maybe consult someone who knows what the fuck they are doing, if you want to fuck with that.

Stops to make /u/HashSlingingSlashur Leche de Coco

Chocolate & Europe

Chocolate was brought back to Spain from The Americas sometime in the 16th century.

In 1657, the first English chocolate houses opened, much like today’s coffee houses. The drink was still considered a luxury and the shops were only open to men as a place to gamble and discuss politics.

In 1659 the first chocolaterie was opened Paris.

Until the mid 18th century, chocolate was made basically how the Mayans had produced it. During the industrial revolution, a series of technological inventions changed the way chocolate was made. Im paraphrasing and am going to copy/paste.

>First, a hydraulic machine was invented to grind cocoa beans into paste.Soon after, another Frenchman created a steam driven chocolate mill. It was now possible to grind huge amounts of cocoa and mass-produce chocolate inexpensively and quickly so it was available to people all over Europe.

>In 1829 a Dutch chemist, invented the cocoa press. It squeezed the cocoa butter out of the bean leaving the powder we now call cocoa. He also added alkaline salts to powdered chocolate, which helps it mix better with water, and gives it a darker color and milder flavor. This process is called “dutching” after the nationality of the inventor. All of these innovations made chocolate smoother, creamier and tastier.

>This separation allows chocolatiers to add different amounts of cocoa butter and cocoa powder together to make various flavors of chocolate. Without the cocoa press, we would not have white chocolate, milk chocolate or cocoa powder for making hot cocoa and baking

• 1829. Invention of the cocoa press.
• 1830. Chocolate mixed with nuts.
• 1847. World’s first chocolate bar (candy type). Only 170 years ago
• 1875. Milk chocolate is invented, with the addition of condensed milk.
• 1879. The “conching” machine creates rich, smooth cocoa paste.
• 1900. The process of dipping chocolate candies is automated by the “enrobing” machine.
• 1912. Pralines or filled chocolates invented in Belgium.

Belgium was a Spanish territory and therefore had access to cocoa beans and the recipe for making chocolate. Belgium also had a colony in the Congo where they grew cocoa trees and therefore, always had access to the beans. This helped make Belgium one of the major chocolate making centers of the world.

As you can see chocolate is a relatively new luxury to the modern world.

You can read about US Military Chocolate here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_chocolate

Flavors responsible for chocolate's taste (include but not limited to):

2- and 3-methylbutanoic acids, dimethyl trisulfide, 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine, 1-pentanol, 3-(methylthiol)-propionaldehyde, methylbenzene, methylpyrazine, , ethenylpyrazine, pyridine, 2-methylpyridine, 1-(2-furanylmethyl)-1H-pyrrole, 1H-indole and dimethyl ). benzyl alcohol (5) and dihydro-2-methyl-3(2H)-furanone were only recently reported in dark chocolates. Specific nitrogen heterocycles from Maillard reactions included: 3(or 2),5-dimethyl-2(or 3)-ethylpyrazine, 3,5-(or 6)-diethyl-2-methylpyrazine (53), 2,3-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole, 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole

and the list goes on...

http://www.flavours.asia/uploads/7/9/8/9/7989988/chocolate_dark_volatiles.pdf

Pairings

The flavor of chocolate is very complex. Not all of these flavors are "safe for vaping." Pyrazines seem very prevalent though, and go very well with chocolate as do many fruit, nut, tobacco, cream, cinnamon, vanilla, butterscotch, bakery, caramel, possibly some floral or spice flavors, liquor/liqueur and coffee flavors.

Flavors available to us that we can use (include but not limited to):

• TFA Bittersweet Chocolate Extra - Smells a bit darker I havent used mine yet due to time constraints. Reminds me of Seduce Juices Chunky Monkey recipe. Im sure it used this.

• TFA Double Chocolate Clear - Pretty tasty at 1% I get as chrisdvr describes: somewhere between cocoa powder and Hershey's syrup.

• TFA White Chocolate - Not sure

• FW White CHocolate

• FLV Milk chocolate my new love - hashslingingslashur/PerennialPhilosopher/id10-t

• FLV White Chocolate

• FLV Smore, -moneyb22

• FA Cocoa - Ive seen mixed reviews

• FA Chocolate - I havent tried it.

• HS Australian Choc - Highly rated

• HS Chocolate Cream - havent tried

• Bakers Flavors Chocolate Truffle! - deejaymillsync

• INW Milk Chocolate - Raved about in the past. recently reformulated

• MF White Chocolate - Ive heard good things

• and the list goes on...

As you can see I am not too well versed in all the chocolate flavorings. I feel a little blasphemous for not having more flavor notes for y'all. I am just starting to dive down this rabbit hole but am intrigued by it's history. I will update this with more of my own tasting notes as I can.

Oh and shoutout /u/ilikeycoffee the inspiration for this post. creep their submitted history and search the page for "DIY_ejuice" for more great info.

My recipe aged into shit. Try enyawreklaw's golden ticket instead.

https://diyordievaping.com/2016/03/25/golden-ticket-chocolate-milk-remix/

Here's some sauce http://www.mdpi.com/search?q=Origin+and+Domestication+of+Native+Amazonian+Crops&authors=&article_type=&journal=diversity&section=&special_issue=&volume=&issue=&number=&page=&search=Search