Think about something you love for a moment.
How does that thought make you feel? If you could taste it, what would be its flavor?
Sitting in an Emergency Room earlier this week waiting for my husband to be wheeled off for a CT scan followed by an MRI, I thought about that, the taste of love, and noticed on that day that love’s taste was bitter.
Narayana and Lakshmi, Cosmic Lover and Nature’s Love Goddess
Of course, we normally think of love as sweet, associating it with what we call “comfort” foods ~ Mom’s Mac Cheese, home-baked cookies, warmed milk ~ or with a romantic “diner à deux” with a rich menu of courses, wine, and a sumptuous dessert.
But on that day, under stark hospital lights, love tasted anything but sweet. What if they find a tumor? An aneurysm? Could this unbearable pain he has had for two weeks now be a symptom of something fatal? Or, not fatal but also not curable, not knowable, never-ending?
According to Ayurveda, the sweet taste is the taste that gives us strength, patience, endurance, health. Love is like that, isn’t? It fortifies us. It is grounding, pacifying, reassuring. It makes us more accepting, more generous. It helps us feel whole.
Bitter, on the other hand, is the taste associated with the emotion of loss. Grief has a bitter edge to it. This is not bitter as we usually think of it. Not the bitter of frustrated resentment as in, “My, how bitter she has become since her divorce.” The taste of that emotion would actually be sour, as in “sour grapes.” Combining the elements of fire and earth, sour feelings are like fire buried underground, a subterranean seething.
Cacao Pods
Bitter, instead, relates to letting go, surrender, releasing the old. Its taste combines the elements of air and space. Foods that taste bitter help us lose weight, loosen Ama, unclog the system, lighten up, eliminate toxins, clean wounds, purify the tissues.
Which brings me to Chocolate. Of course.
In its essence, chocolate has a bitter taste. It is almost unpalatable without the leavening of something sweet like sugar, milk, maple syrup, or honey. Chocolate, or choco-late, is cacao, a pure bitter, and “late” meaning milk, a sweet.
Monday helped me understand more fully why chocolate then, is the food of love. True love, enduring love is sweet. It strengthens, affirms, uplifts and expands us.
Aphrodite, Greek Goddess of Love
But deep, pure love is also like a fire. It lights us up. It purifies. It burns away our false, constructed ego, eliminating the toxins of selfishness, defensiveness and pride. It restores innocence, unclogs channels of self-expression and authenticity, renewing energy. It puts our priorities into proper perspective. It forces us to face our interdependency, bringing to the surface buried fears of inadequacy, loss, annihilation. In this sense, deep love has much in common with the taste of bitter and its effect on us. It purifies.
Bitter and Sweet, chocolate helps us dissolve our mental strategies and resistance to life’s flow, restoring trust so we can melt back into the heart, allow connection, strengthen our bonds of oneness and remember what is true.
Chocolate Love
After Monday, my love for my husband is prioritized. Gone is anything that distracts. It feels clearer, stronger and purer than ever. Best of all, we are fortunate that the thumping, sleep-depriving, shrieking pain was only the result of a pinched nerve. A very pinched, very distressed nerve, but one that is now calmed and finding its way back to normal.
So we have a lot to love and to celebrate this Valentine’s Day. I am going to splurge and make a Chocolate Pâté.
Chocolate Pâté
The simple recipe for this sumptuous dessert lets the chocolate speak for itself, and it doesn’t just speak, it resounds. Loooooooooovvvvvveee ~
Chocolate Pâté
168 grams of 100% Cacao (Ghirardelli and Scharffen Berger make the perfect Bar)
2/3 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup ghee
1.5 tablespoon Jaggary, or Evaporated Cane Juice
Ingredients
Put all ingredients into a medium size pot and cook over very low heat, stirring constantly. After a few minutes, once chocolate has mostly melted, turn off the heat. Continue to stir until the consistency is smooth and even.
Line the bottom of a small loaf pan with a large piece of cellophane, or parchment paper, leaving excess wrap to hang over the sides. Give the chocolate mixture a few minutes to cool, still stirring, then pour it into the loaf pan. Cover with the wrap, and refrigerate 5 to 6 hours, until firm. Before serving let stand at room temperature one hour, then turn out onto a plate and sprinkle with cocoa or cinnamon powder. Garnish with figs, blueberries, blackberries and serve with Crème Fraîche.
A Dusting of Cinnamon adds Spice
This is such divine succulence from the Mother. With food like this, her eternal, delicious love is hard to deny!
~ Happy Valentine’s Day ~
La Molina
Sally Bernstein has many great ideas for Valentine’s Day over at Sally’s Place, including loads of recipes and gift ideas. That is where I discovered La Molina Gianduja Spread, inspired by La Molina, the chambermaid and chocolatier to 17th century Queen Marie-Therese. Nothing like the love of a good woman!
Thank you for sharing your deep and heartfelt experience. Blessings to you and Bhava as he moves toward a fully functioning, happy nerve. Love, Light and Sweetness…
Thank you, Sally. “Happy Nerves” would be a great Ayurvedic Blog! I love what it conjures. Love to you and Jeff ~
Im so glad to hear he is ok~Happy Valentines Day
We missed you last week, Goddess of Beauty and Light!
Laura and Bhava,
Such a lovely post, so rich in thought, emotion, and heart. SO glad to hear that Bhava will be okay. Sending him much calming light.
Thank you, Stephanie! Any great renovated recipes for Valentine’s Day on your site?
I’m so sorry to hear about the “unnerving” experience for you all and especially grateful to know that Bhava is okay and on the mend. I’m sending calming visions of nerves and much love. After having divined with this utterly perfect food, I’m sure the bittersweet flavors of your Valentine’s Day chocolate pate will hasten his recovery! Love to you both.
Do we need a new word for this? How about the “sweetbitter” flavors of love and dark chocolate have the potency to heal?
Happy Valentine’s Day to you, a perfect goddess of healing love.
Blessings to you and Bhava – so glad it was what it was – happy valentines!
I was so stressed out reading this the first time. I am so glad Bhava is OK. The second time I read it, I was struck by how similar my sons are to the bitter and the sweet. I love that the “bitter” is the cleansing and the purifying while the sweet is the sustaining. I am learning so much from your blog. Thank you!
pamela
So you see what I mean about bitter? It clarifies!
Hello Friends,
I served this last night to the boys, my Valentines, and they loved it! Drizzled with maple syrup, sprinkled with cinnamon, dolloped with Honey Greek Yogurt, and decorated with blue berries, purple grapes and heart-shaped, red, sliced strawberries, it was indeed a Heavenly union.
Oh, such great news that Bhava is fine. While reading this my blood pressure was going up until I reached the part where he was fine! Great use of suspense! Whew! :o) I’ve been traveling for work, but plan to take class on Saturday. Can’t wait – boy do I need it! Happy belated Valentine’s Day to you and Bhava… -Robin
Hi Robyn,
Bhava is even better today than when I wrote this. Glory be to God!
Look forward to seeing you Saturday ~
Laura
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Also, please know that I have made this with maple syrup instead of the jaggery and it was veery bit as good. Love!
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Oh yum!!! I love chocolate! I have to make this, but I’ll substitute the whipping cream with coconut cream. I’ll let you know how it turns out! Happy Love Day! xxo
That is exactly what I am doing now. Thank you for adding that as a Vegan possibility, divine Melissa!
Hello Beautiful Laura… thanks once again for your food love…
so glad to hear that Bhava is finally getting some relief… and you 🙂
I was going to ask about substituting for the dairy but think I will go with the coconut cream Melissa suggested. yum… Happy V-day to you!
Perfect! I am a diary free girl myself and made it last night with coconut butter, 1 t coconut oil, and a bit of coconut milk mixing it all together until it was the consistency of a good thick cream. It worked, and came out beautifully. LMK how it works for you.
Oh my Goddess! Be still my heart! What a beautifully articulated, artistically created piece of delicious food for the soul. So so glad all is well. Loving and healing blessings.
Thank you, Kelly. With coconut cream it is every bit as good, and even healthier. Let us know if you try it, beautiful heart that you are.
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