The Secret Life of Chocolate is a book about chocolate. Not the sweet, mass-produced fatty confection most of us are familiar with, though. This is about old-school chocolate--pre-Colombian, Central American, bitter-spicy-foamy-intense-blow-your-socks-off chocolate. Chocolate beverages made with roasted beans, water, spices, and indigenous plants. The book delves into the ancient history of the human relationship with the cocoa bean tree, Theobroma cacao, dissects the pharmacological properties of chocolate to the fullest possible extent, and divulges the mythical and magical associations of human interactions with this incredible plant.