Hot Cocoa Day - December 13

December 13th is Hot Cocoa day and really - there is nothing better on such a cold day than a pampering and warming cocoa cup!

The chocolate drink is prepared from cocoa powder and hot milk, or a vegetable substitute for milk - a soy drink or a hot almond drink.

style="display:block"
data-ad-format="fluid"
data-ad-layout-key="-g7+t-3o-an+x9"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-8152220688286833"
data-ad-slot="7257876051">

Cocoa powder is a dark brown powder extracted from drying and grinding the cocoa beans. The powder is rich in nutritional values - it has almost twice the amount of antioxidants than red wine, and three times as much green tea.

The cocoa trees originate in the foothills of the Andes near the Amazon and Orinoco rivers in South America. Cocoa came to Central America in the first century by the Maya. The Toltecs and then the Aztecs cultivated its seeds and gave it the name "cacahuatl" in their language, the Navatl language.

style="display:block"
data-ad-format="fluid"
data-ad-layout-key="-g7+t-3o-an+x9"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-8152220688286833"
data-ad-slot="7257876051">

The hot cocoa drink was a hit as early as the 10th century. Documents of the Spanish conquest of Mexico say that the emperor of the Aztec Empire, Mokatsuma II, used to drink only Cocoa, which was served to him in a bowl of gold and eaten with a golden spoon. The chocolate was mixed with vanilla spices until it became a melted cut. Every day 50 such bowls were prepared for him and another 2000 bowls for the nobles of his court.

In 1502 Columbus became acquainted with cocoa during his fourth voyage to America but did not discover its commercial potential. In 1519, the Spanish conquerors who came to Mexico under the leadership of Hernan Cortez, found in the palace of the Aztec king Montezuma a huge treasure of cocoa beans instead of silver and gold. Cortez brought the cocoa beans to Spain in 1528 and the Spaniards did not expose them to the rest of Europe for 100 years.

style="display:block"
data-ad-format="fluid"
data-ad-layout-key="-g7+t-3o-an+x9"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-8152220688286833"
data-ad-slot="7257876051">

The cocoa drink first came out of Spain in 1615, when Princess Anne, daughter of King Philip II of Spain, married King Louis XII of France and brought the drink with her to the royal court. The French were enthusiastic about cocoa and it gained a reputation as an aphrodisiac.

By 1700 the cocoa drink had become popular throughout Western Europe. He also came to western India and the Philippines by the Spaniards.

Today cocoa trees are grown mainly in Equatorial Africa, Ivory Coast and Ghana, Indonesia and Latin America, especially in Brazil. The cocoa is ground mainly in Europe, the Netherlands and Germany.

How to celebrate Hot Cocoa Day?

It is easy. Today is the day to make hot chocolate in a cup, marble cocoa powder at home and hot milk. There are lots of cocoa drink recipes that creatively combine other things like cinnamon sticks, vanilla, dark chocolate, marshmallows, whipped cream and more.

If you can, drink hot chocolate, listen and watch the rain - is there anything more perfect than that?

style="display:block"
data-ad-format="fluid"
data-ad-layout-key="-g7+t-3o-an+x9"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-8152220688286833"
data-ad-slot="7257876051">

December 13th is also Horse Day

Columbus Day- October 12th

On October 12, 1492, a small ship arrived from Spain with the ship's explorer, Christopher Columbus, spotted an unknown continent in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean.

Columbus thought he had come to India. He was the first of the West to document the new and unfamiliar continent.

In fact, Columbus is not the first European to come to America. Before him was Leif Erikson, an explorer of Icelandic countries. It is believed that Irakson was the first European to travel on the lands of North America (Newfoundland, Canada).

But let's go back to Columbus's journey: it began on August 3, 1492, when Columbus and his men left with three ships, from the port of Plus in Spain to the unknown, heading west.

During the voyage, Columbus and his crew went through many hardships recorded in his diary. On October 7, the crew noticed a bird flying west. They navigated the ship in the direction the bird flew, hoping to land. On October 12, at 2 am, the ship's driver, Rodrigo de Triana, suddenly shouted, "Dry! They all ran to the deck to see the earth poking out in the middle of the sea. They were sure they had reached the Far East, but they actually came to one of the Bahamas.

Columbus announced that the place would be called San Salvador. They went on to the island of Cuba and on 28 October docked in front of him. On December 8 they reached the island of Hispaniola.

When Columbus and his men returned to Spain, after one of the ships, Santa Maria, ran aground and drowned in the Caribbean, they brought presents from the island with them: parrots, fruit and some indigenous people.

Since Columbus thought they had come to the East, he mistakenly considered the indigenous to Indians, hence the name "Indiands." Columbus traveled three times to the new continent and claimed ownership of it. He found as many good things as the cocoa beans and the pearls.

Columbus thought he had come to India by the time he died. It was only in 1501, when Amerigo Vespucci arrived in America, that it was a new continent, and because it was Amigo who understood it, decided to call the continent of America, after him.

Columbus Day celebrates in the US, Canada and the Latin countries.