If you thought chocolate was just for eating, think again. While we all love a chocolate treat, chocolate can be used for more than fulfilling a sweet tooth. In fact, researchers have discovered that chocolate can be turned into an eco-fuel. That means that one day in the future, we could all be fueling up our cars with chocolate gas.
Historically, chocolate has been used for everything from currency to medicine. The ancient Mayans were the first to grow cocoa beans. They would grind up the dried beans and make hot drinks with them. They also used the beans as a form of currency. The Europeans used the bean as a therapeutic medicine, to be taken in moderation.
We continue to find new uses for chocolate, from the truly delicious to the bizarre. We use it to coat insects for eating, we make it into soaps, and we mold it into different body parts as gifts for the people we love. Here are a few things you can do at home with chocolate (besides eating it).
Get a Full Body Wrap
Get softer skin with a chocolate body wrap. Livestrong.com has instructions up on how to make a homemade chocolate body wrap that is a perfect way to kindle your romance with your significant other and get great looking skin. All you need to do is melt some dark chocolate chips and blend in strawberries, champagne, and honey. The mixture sounds good enough to eat, but it’s really beneficial for your skin.
Start a Survival Fire
What do you do if you get stuck in the wilderness with only a chocolate bar and a can of soda? You start a fire, of course. The Wildwood Survival website has a unique method for starting a fire when you don’t have any matches or a lighter. Aside from the candy bar and soda can, you will need to scout around for some dry, light tinder. The chocolate is used to shine the bottom of the can and, after the can is shiny and the chocolate is wiped off, the sun reflects off of the bottom of the can, like it would a mirror, and the heat is concentrated onto the tinder. Fascinating!
Have a Chocolate Massage
The cocoa bean has been used in a number of ways for beauty products. Cocoa butter is the most common ingredient that is extracted from the cocoa bean and added to moisturizers and makeup. While many of us were told as teenagers that eating chocolate will cause pimples, people are finding that using chocolate on their skin is beneficial. Yoga Wiz goes on to tell us how cocoa butter and chocolate scent oil can be made into a healthy massage oil that will help moisturize and firm our skin.
Mold It and Sculpt It
Some of the proudest chocolate stores have beautiful chocolate sculptures on display. The one that I visit yearly has an entire piano made from chocolate. You, too, can make your very own chocolate sculptures. For budding artists, using chocolate melted into blocks is an inexpensive way to practice their sculpting skills. Others use molds to pour melted chocolate into. There is also a chocolate modeling clay you can make. Wicked Goodies shares an excellent recipe for the clay that can be shaped into flowers and other objects and then eaten.
Make a Foot Scrub
Forget the packaged scrubs you find at the grocery store and pharmacies. You can make your own scrub that looks delicious, smells delicious, and works wonderfully. The Idea Room has a great chocolate sugar scrub recipe that sounds good enough to eat, but is great for removing dry, rough skin from your feet. All you need to make this scrub is sugar, cocoa baking powder, an oil such as coconut oil, and vanilla extract. This is a great gift giving idea for friends who love chocolate.
Smell It
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the mere scent of chocolate can improve our mood. In a study involving scented rooms and how it affects our behavior, Neil Martin found that a room that smells of chocolate reduces stress and anxiety. Martin also found that it doesn’t matter what kind of chocolate you smell, milk chocolate or dark chocolate, the effects are the same. The scent reduces theta brain activity and has a calming affect on people.
Body Painting
Chocolate body paint. It kind of makes the imagination run wild, doesn’t it? You can buy chocolate body paints for a night of fun with your significant other or you can make your own. Alibi has a wonderful, edible recipe for chocolate body paints that you can make in your own kitchen. In fact, you probably already have the ingredients: sugar, salt, water, butter, cocoa powder, vanilla, and a touch of booze.
Put It in Your Hair
People are putting all sorts of things in their hair these days, from bull semen to mashed bananas. So why not some chocolate? Chocolate hair masks are available to buy for dry, damaged hair, but you can make your own at home. Black Girl Long Hair gives readers two healthy chocolate hair recipes. Their hair mask is made with bentonite clay, cocoa powder, coconut oil, aloe very juice, honey, and tea tree oil. They also have a chocolate hair smoothie recipe up that includes greek yogurt, cocoa powder, coconut oil, lavender, and rose hips seed oil.
Make Lip Balm
Better than melting a hot, summer chocolate on your lips, you can make your own chocolate lip balm. The natural oils in chocolate are great for moisturizing your lips. Food.com has a great recipe for a lip balm you can make in your own kitchen. The ingredients are simply cocoa butter, chocolate chips, a vitamin E capsule, and a touch of almond extract.
