Love Chocolate? Discover Its Connection to Sephardic Jews
Welcome February with chocolate.
A lot of chocolate is purchased in this short month, whether as gifts or personal consumption. It's also not too early to decide whether to host a chocolate seder this year.
However you enjoy chocolate, there's a lot of backstory to how chocolate came to Europe, and eventually, the United States, via Sephardic Jews.
Coming on February 1 is The Chocolate King by Michael Leventhal and illustrated by Laura Catalan, which tells an intergenerational story of chocolate and the Jewish community in Spain and France.
Benjamin dreamed of making chocolate, like his grandfather Marco - roasting and grinding the cocoa beans, and stirring it just right. Back in Spain, Marco was known as The Chocolate King for his incredible hot chocolate! But here in France, most people in town have never had chocolate. They think it looks strange, like mud. It just may take a chocolate catastrophe to change their minds!
The book includes a foldout timeline of chocolate history and the Jewish community, an illustrated guide about how cocoa beans are made into chocolate, and a hot chocolate recipe.
The Chocolate King is available for preorder on Amazon now and direct from Behrman House on February 1.
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