Christina Zola on sun 18 feb 01
In France, one drinks hot chocolate out of a bowl... Preferably the largest
bowl you can hold in two hands :)
I thought it a wonderful thing, to wake up one morning in a chateau on the
Loire when I was a teenager and grumble mumble down to the dining hall...
Found these huge urns of hot beverage but none of us could find a mug! all
these bowls, and not one mug! the concierge finally came to our rescue and
showed us the "proper" thing to do...
I haven't drunk hot chocolate out of anything else, since.
Andrew B Buck on mon 19 feb 01
OK FOLKS! Here is the next HOT SALES IDEA. Ah La French Butter Keeper
meets Japanese Tea Ceremony.
What we need to do now is come up with a really good story about when and
with what ceremony THE "French Hot Chocolate Bowl" is used. We will need
to some completely French names for the different styles of bowls to be
used in the ceremony at different times of the year. You know, the type
of bowl that comes in the, expensive but understated, hand made box. And
we will have to have a special name and style for the inexpensive, mass
produced, bowls used in everyday life (maybe with a small saucer that
does double duty as a lid to keep the liquid warm when it isn't going to
be consumed ceremoniously) so that everyone will know the difference. We
will also have to come up with special names (in French) for the
different types of chocolate used to make the ceremonial brew and the
every day drink. Of course, in the ceremony, a very finely hand ground
variety of dark, dry, chocolate, which is hand whipped into a thin,
frothy, unsweetened, brew that maximizes the true essence of the
ceremonial experience, MUST be used. No one must be confuse the use of
the, heaven forbid, sweetened dry instant or liquid chocolate sauce
dumped into cold milk, and heated in the microwave, with the ceremony or
the "very special" bowls made for its use.
It would be nice if we could identify some, preferably wealthy, masters
of the "French Hot Chocolate Ceremony", to raise us up to master potter
status, or even living national treasure, through the use of our,
uniquely suited, handmade bowls. But, what the hey, even if we don't
find someone wealthy, or even very masterful at the ceremony, we can
still point to the post quoted below and say that the French, at least in
this case, do use hot chocolate bowls. Who cares that, in the future,
someone that lives in France, has lived in France or has been to France
posts to the list saying "I've never heard of a French Hot Chocolate Bowl
and no one I have talked to has either".
If we can come up with a product that fills a specific need and works in
the manner for which it was designed, we can call it what ever we want.
If 99.999 percent of the "French Hot Chocolate Bowls" made are used as
salad bowls, soup bowls, ice cream bowls, dog water bowls, or just kept
in a box in the closet and only brought out occasionally to show off to
special guests, is calling them French, or a hot chocolate bowl, a bad
thing? If the name brings attention to the product in question and the
customer finds it unique enough to buy, do you really think anyone has
been fooled? I know a lot of people, in the late 1960's or early 1970's
bought Pet Rocks and I don't for a minute think that any of them were
really fooled into thinking they were different from the untrained
variety. Heck, I think I'll go on down to the studio right now and make
up a batch of them "French Hot Chocolate Bowls" right now. But, you
know, I wouldn't mind if whoever buys them ends up using them to drink
tea. I might even put handles on a few of them just for the customers
with heat sensitive fingers. Am I still going to call them French Hot
Chocolate Bowls? Ahhh, maybe. It could make a real good tall tale.
"Yeh, I heard about them French Hot Chocolate Bowls on Clayart one
time..........."
Andy Buck
Raincreek Pottery
Port Orchard, Washington, USA
On Sun, 18 Feb 2001 09:42:19 -0500 Christina Zola
writes:
> In France, one drinks hot chocolate out of a bowl... Preferably the
largest
> bowl you can hold in two hands :)
>
> I thought it a wonderful thing, to wake up one morning in a chateau on
the
> Loire when I was a teenager and grumble mumble down to the dining
hall...
> Found these huge urns of hot beverage but none of us could find a mug!
all
> these bowls, and not one mug! the concierge finally came to our rescue
and
> showed us the "proper" thing to do...
>
> I haven't drunk hot chocolate out of anything else, since.
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
Jennifer F Boyer on tue 20 feb 01
Sounds good, kinda like a MOVEMENT...
Here's where we might start. I live in the Green Mountains(white
at the moment) which is the home of Lake Champlain Chocolates,
makers of gourmet chocolate and HOT CHOCOLATE. The latter comes
in flavors like raspberry and orange....wait.
I'm back after a HC break
Since Samuel de Champlain was the first Frenchman explorer to
sail into this area in 1609 (sorry for the political
incorrectness of this reference ie Native Americans..but we'll
just have to ignore all that in the name of commerce
:-/), it seems fit that Lake Champlain Chocolates can cash in
on this coming wave of interest in the Hot Chocolate Ceremony.
Maybe Samuel sipped the stuff on his long journeys across the
ocean. Maybe some legends could be invented...oops,
DISCOVERED in the annals of history.
If we want to enlist Lake Champlain Chocolates I can be the
liaison.....no problem since chocolate is my only vice....
Any proposals or petitions should be sent to me..
Jennifer, heavily afflicted with a case of "POS software
learning curve avoidance syndrome"
Andrew B Buck wrote:
>
> OK FOLKS! Here is the next HOT SALES IDEA. Ah La French Butter Keeper
> meets Japanese Tea Ceremony.
>
> What we need to do now is come up with a really good story about when and
> with what ceremony THE "French Hot Chocolate Bowl" is used.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jennifer Boyer mailto:jboyer@adelphia.net
Thistle Hill Pottery
95 Powder Horn Glen Rd
Montpelier, VT 05602 USA
802-223-8926
http://www.thistlehillpottery.com/
Never pass on an email warning without checking out this site
for web hoaxes and junk:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/cs/nethoaxes/index.htm
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jeremy McLeod on tue 20 feb 01
> What we need to do now is come up with a really good story about when and
> with what ceremony THE "French Hot Chocolate Bowl" is used.
Of course everyone who purchases such a bowl (or set of same) will find
themselves inexplicably driven to move to small villages and open up a
Chocolaterie and liberate the town from pallid, repressed lifestyles.
This movement could single-handedly be the cure to urban blight.
Jeremy McLeod
Cyberpotter@AOL.COM on tue 20 feb 01
French is passe. (or would be if I could remember how to make an "e" with an
accent over it.) How about MEXICAN chocolate bowls? Hot chocolate is Mexico's
gift to the world. The Mayans and Aztecs used beans from the cacao tree to
make a drink they called "xocolatl." Aztec Indian legend held that cacao
seeds had been brought from Paradise and that wisdom and power came from
eating the fruit of the cacao tree. * The word "chocolate" is said to derive
from the Mayan "xocolatl"; cacao from the Aztec "cacahuatl". The Mexican
Indian word "chocolate" comes from a combination of the terms choco ("foam")
and atl ("water"); early chocolate was only consumed in beverage form. It was
so popular in Europe after the return of the Spaniards that one of the popes
forbade its use on the grounds that it was an aphrodisiac, an idea that
partly derived from the fact that Montezuma consumed it before he entered his
harem. Here's a recipe, which you will note does NOT call for sugar:
Mexican Chocolate Beverage
6 cups milk
3 ounces Mexican chocolate (or dark Dutch type)
1 tsp powdered cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
Boil milk in the top of a deep double boiler five minutes. Remove fromfire
and add chocolate, mixed with the cinnamon, a little at a time,beating with
molinillo or egg beater after each addition. When the chocolateis thoroughly
blended, heat to the boiling point. Place over bottom ofdouble boiler and add
eggs, whipping constantly, until they arethoroughly blended and the mixture
is frothing. Yield: 8 servings.
Nancy in Cincinnati, where we are predicted to return to winter again
tomorrow.
| |
|
