Chocolate Week Goodies You've Likely Never Tried

The antioxidant properties of the cocoa pod are varied and powerful

I'm kicking off Chocolate Week(end) with a bang! Talk about friends with benefits, chocolate, especially the dark kind is a super food for athletes and cross trainers alike. Runners and cyclists who consumed a mere 8 ozs of chocolate milk after exercising were found to have less inflammation and faster recovery times. If you live in the northeast, you will have most likely visited Hershey, PA and taken the factory tour. They take you through all of the harvesting and processing of the cocoa pods. Chocolate was the drink of kings, especially Montezuma leader of the Aztec empire. They found chocolate mixed with chili peppers give them a lot of energy and stamina.  They needed it! Not having domesticated animals to ride means YOU will be hoofing it.  So here are some of my modern day chocolate inspired favorites:

Emmy's Choco Chili & Dark Cacao Macaroons
These raw food, vegan coconut-choco chili macaroons are about as close as you are going to get to Montezuma's recipe.  These are so light and fluffy, this recipe includes raw cacao, sweet vanilla bean, organic ground cinnamon and hot chili peppers. Each macaroon is 100 calories but trust me, the hot chilies will up your metabolism big time.

Emmy's cocao infused macaroons

Beauty Bursts in Chocolate-Mint by NeoCell
These tasty chews are loaded with easy to absorb Collagen, Hyaluronic Acid and Vitamin C. These are perfect before and after a workout, especially if you suffer from joint pain. One serving of only 2 soft chews gives you 2,000 mg or 2 grams of both Protein and Hydrolyzed Collagen. Made with natural flavors and real cocoa, you get some of the antioxidant benefits inherent to dark chocolate.

Beauty Bursts in Mint-Chocolate

Pure Inventions Pure Cocoa Antioxidant
These chocolaty liquid drops are very easy to take with you or add to your morning water bottle, coffee or protein shake. They really have a delicious chocolate flavor. 1 dropper full is all you need as it contains a proprietary blend of cocoa extract and cocoa powder along with Lo Han fruit extract. This is probably the best way to get an instant boost of antioxidant power into the blood stream.

Pure Inventions Cocoa Antioxidant

Emmy's Chocolate Sauce Original Dark
This is the BOSS of the chocolate sauce! Drizzle it over frozen yogurt or fruit, it contains  organic raw agave, organic raw cacao powder and wild crafted vanilla bean. This is serious stuff that will definitely boost your energy level on the spot.

Emmy's Chocolate Sauce

Natural cocao pod and beans c/o CocoWell