Alchemy of plants...

I have always been deeply fascinated with plants and fungus and their alchemical reactions. Particularly what happens when we introduce such things as heat, liquids, acids and alkalines and the time things take for their structures and properties to begin to change.
This month I've been enjoying foraging for Amanita Muscaria pictured above. They're really abundant this year and are such a beautiful mushroom, but require very careful and well researched attention. There is a very specific temperature for them to be dried, which I do in a dehydrator in the second pic. It's at this temperature that the ibotenic acid begins to convert into muscimol. It must be done with care and patience. Too cool and the alchemy doesn't begin. Too hot and the medicinal properties we're wanting to work with will be destroyed. 
It then got me thinking about Cacao beans. The process for Ceremonial Cacao requires the beans to be gently toasted slowly between 110° - 130°c. It is at this sweet spot the reaction known as the Maillard reaction begins. The natural sugars and amino acids release to give us those delicous rich notes we love about Cacao. Too hot and it will be smoky and burnt, too cool and it will taste flat.
As well as enhancing the taste, toasting at these very specific temperatures helps release and preserve the important medicinal compounds such as anandamide, phenylethylamine, theobromine and flavonoids.
This is why regular chocolate doesn't contain these compounds as the beans are roasted up to temperatures of between 170° - 200°c which destroys any of the beans wonderful medicinal properties.
​The benefits to chocolate manufacturers is to mainly intensify the flavour, develop a more uniform colour and kill any microbes. I am certainly not an expert and there is so much information available to explore if you wish to dive deeper. This is a very simplified 'in a nutshell' version of what is a highly complex and deeply fascinating science.
Much love! 🤎😊🍄