Slightly bigger than a 35mm film canister, camoflaged.
This area had a lot of brown colours with all the rock and so we camoflaged the cache container in a brown colour as well. This makes us think of our favourite treat - CHOCOLATE. It sounds so much more heavenly in French - Chocolat - hence the name of this cache.
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolatl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavour.
After fermentation, the beans are dried, then cleaned, and then roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.
Cocoa solids contain alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine, which have physiological effects on the body. It has been linked to serotonin levels in the brain. Some research found that chocolate, eaten in moderation, can lower blood pressure. The presence of theobromine renders chocolate toxic to some animals.
Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavours in the world. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays: chocolate bunnies and eggs are popular on Easter, chocolate coins on Hanukkah, Santa Claus and other holiday symbols on Christmas, and chocolate hearts or chocolate in heart-shaped boxes on Valentine's Day. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate. Around three quarters of the world's current cacao bean production takes place in West Africa.
The possible health effects of chocolate include both positive and negative effects. While chocolate is regularly eaten for pleasure, there are potential beneficial health effects of eating chocolate. Cocoa or dark chocolate may positively affect the circulatory system. Other possible effects under basic research include anticancer, brain stimulator, cough preventor and antidiarrhoeal activities. An aphrodisiac effect is yet unproven.
Limited amounts of dark chocolate appears, according to research, to help to prevent heart disease. The oxidation of LDL cholesterol is considered a major factor in the promotion of coronary disease. When this LDL waxy substance oxidizes, it tends to stick to artery walls, increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Research has shown that the polyphenols in chocolate inhibit oxidation of LDL cholesterol.
Acknowledgements: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate