Chocolate Mousse: Spilled Milk #330

Fast, easy and perfectly Parisian. I'm also getting into: the murky origins of chocolate mousse, some of the disturbing realities behind cacao and the possibility of a future with no chocolate.

✈️ BOGO Giveaway: We’re giving one lucky registered guest the chance to bring a plus one for FREE on my upcoming trip to Vietnam!

Just sign up for the trip to secure your spot and be automatically entered into the giveaway. The winner will be selected from registered guests in October.

It’s Paris Week here on Spilled Milk, and what could be more Parisian when it comes to an easy, fast dessert that takes 20 minutes to make (including prep), four to 24 hours of fridge time, and is as elegant as it is delicious?

I had extra motivation, too. I keep getting lots of questions about my love—or lack thereof—for chocolate. Trust me, I serve it to my family a lot. I love many chocolate-heavy foods. I just wouldn’t miss it if it didn’t exist.

So you know I like my history and my soapbox...

Chocolate is the rare indulgence that manages to be both a global obsession and something of a moral quagmire. It began innocently enough: theobroma cacao, “food of the gods,” a name only the Aztecs could say without irony. Long before it was wrapped in foil and handed out on Valentine's Day, chocolate was a bitter, sacred brew. The Olmecs, Maya and later the Aztecs drank it spiced and unsweetened, sometimes frothed with blood in ceremonial rituals that Starbucks, mercifully, has yet to replicate.

The Spanish brought cacao beans back from Mesoamerica in the 16th century, and with a good dose of sugar and a heavy dash of colonialism, chocolate was reborn as the drink of the European elite. By the 19th century, industrialization transformed it into something portable, moldable and sellable to the masses. Cadbury, Hershey, Nestlé: the holy trinity of childhood cavities and culinary obsession. Chocolate cakes, cookies and brownies were now available to any and all.