Spice Category: Chocolate

Cocoa and chocolate have come a long way from the shrivelled pods used as currency by the Incas and Aztecs. Brought to Europe originally as a drink (which the natives of Mexico made with water and corn meal), it immeditely became popular as an ingedient in both sweet and savory cooking.

Whether your making a cake or a mole sauce, The Spice House offers you high quality cocoa and cacao nibs to feed your chocolate fix. We carry two kinds of rich cocoa powder. Natural cocoa has the intensity and bitterness of dark chocolate. Dutched cocoa has gone through an alkalization process which removes some of the natural bitterness, for a smoother flavor in uncooked dishes such as frosting or a mug of hot cocoa.

For the more adventurous, we offer cacao nibs (the raw ingredient from which chocolate is made) and chocolate extract. For those of us who just want our chocolate and want it now, we have a Hot Chocolate mix, which uses both cocoa powders and vanilla powder.

The keynote to happiness within the four walls that make any home is plain, wholesome, well cooked food, attractively served.

Louis P. De Gouy, The Soup Book (1949)