Unsweetened Cocoa Powder FTW!

I thought about posting this on Facebook. I already told my mom and my wife, and one of my best friends from high school over Gchat. I really want to tell the world, but I think I have a limited qualified audience.

I just discovered the life-changing properties of adding unsweetened cocoa powder to my morning coffee.

It started the Monday after a rainy weekend. My wife had to work (she's a gardener) on the stormiest day of the season--on a Sunday morning, no less.

The night before, I programmed the coffee maker to start brewing at 6:15. I portioned out a teaspoon and a half of fine granulated sugar in a sealable plastic container. I lined up two drinking vessel options: a steely silver coffee mug emblazoned with my company logo and an old-school Thermos I found on the curb in the Haight a few years ago (very thoroughly washed since then). I thought about the packets of Swiss Miss that we picked up while traveling for a friend's wedding in upstate New York/our elopement in Vermont/an unexpected stop in Denver for an unexpected memorial service.

(How did it end up with us back in San Francisco? Why did I not throw it away before returning the rental car or boarding one of the planes in Boston, Milwaukee, or Denver?)

B once added Swiss Miss to her coffee. It may have been during that very trip, actually--perhaps at the breakfast bar at the hotel in Roxbury, New York. Maybe that's what inspired us to pick up a box for the remainder of the trip. I don't know when it happened, but I know she loved it. So I grabbed a pack for the stormy morning coffee. And I noticed the unsweetened cocoa powder on the shelf just behind the Swiss Miss.

Would she like that instead? I set both out, between the sugar and the drinking vessels.

She ultimately chose the Swiss Miss and not the unsweetened cocoa, but I had already piqued my own curiosity. I spooned a little of the cocoa into my coffee the next day, and magic happened.

I don't know if I actually owe it to the cocoa powder, but I've noticed that my mornings are much more...relaxed. Calm. Zen. Since I started it, I haven't tried a workday without it, so this is completely unscientific.

I wanted to research the effects of unsweetened cocoa--the box I have has a big green sticker on it that says something about antioxidants. The only good resource I could find in my five minutes of searching this morning was Wikipedia (if any of you know of a good food resource on the web, please share!). Alas:

"Cocoa powder contains several minerals including calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc. All of these minerals are found in greater quantities in cocoa powder than either cocoa butter or cocoa liquor. Cocoa solids also contain 230mg of caffeine and 2057mg of theobromine per 100g, which are mostly absent from the other components of the cocoa bean.

Cocoa powder is rich in flavonoids, a type of polyphenolic ... Flavanols are one of six compounds futher classified as flavenoids. Flavanols, which are also found in fruits and vegetables, are linked to certain health benefits linked to coronary heart disease and stroke. The topic of how flavanols benefit cardiovascular health is still under debate. It has been suggested that the flavanols may take part in mechanisms such as nitric oxide and antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiplatelet effects. Benefiting these mechanisms may improve endothelial function, lipid levels, blood pressure and insulin resistance."

Nothing about zen, but I suspect that when my heart is happy, so is my brain.