RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil The largest library in Latin America owes its existence to an Old World earthquake and a Napoleonic invasion

The Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro is the largest library in Latin America and the seventh largest in the world. But were it not for a devastating earthquake and a Napoleonic invasion, it may never have reached such heights.

On November 1, 1755, a massive earthquake almost destroyed the city of Lisbon, the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal. Between 10,000 and 100,000 people were killed in the city, and countless buildings turned to rubble, in what remains one of the deadliest earthquakes in history.

Also lost in the quake was the 70,000-volume Royal Library inside the devastated Royal Ribeira Palace. At the time, this library was considered one of the finest and most important in Europe.

Soon after the earthquake, King Joseph I of Portugal organized the construction of a new Royal Library, and over the next half century the collection grew significantly with many valuable books and prints. Still, the threat of another major quake loomed over the library, prompting talk of moving the entire collection to the Portuguese colony of Brazil.

The Napoleonic Wars gave the royal collection its final push towards the New World. When an Imperial French corps under Jean-Andoche Junot invaded Portugal in 1807, Portugal’s then Prince Regent John of Braganza (later John VI of Portugal) decided to flee to Brazil, along with the rest of the royal family.

As quickly as he could, John gathered up the collection from the royal library and had it loaded onto the Portuguese fleet. The Prince Regent, along with the first batch of his prized collection, arrived in Rio de Janeiro on March 7, 1808. A second batch, packed in 230 crates, arrived in mid-1810. On October 29, 1810, John founded a new Royal Library on Brazilian soil, which would later become the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil, or National Library of Brazil.

Today, the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil houses a collection of approximately 9 million items, and is considered one of the main national libraries in the world by UNESCO. General works account for some 2 million pieces, occupying about 11 linear miles of shelf space. The collection also contains 21,742 photos from the 19th century; 22,000 maps and about 2,500 atlases; and some 250,000 pieces in its music and sound archive.

And ever since an official decree in 1907, Brazilian publishers are required to send one copy of every title they publish to the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil, ensuring that the collection will continue to grow and grow.

Know Before You Go

The Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil is located at Avenida Rio Branco 219 on Cinelândia Square in central Rio. It’s open to the public Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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BLATCE, CZECHIA Houska Castle Folklore says this medieval fortress was plopped atop a portal to hell to trap the demons below.

In the second half of the 13th century, a mysterious Gothic castle was built. It wasn’t near any water, wasn’t strategically important, and didn’t seem to have anyone living in it. So why was this random fortress built? According to local legend, it was meant to trap demons.

Supposedly, a gate to hell opened on the craggy Czech mountain. The castle was constructed around the portal, and a chapel was plopped directly atop the hole to keep evil monsters from spilling out of the underworld and slipping into the human realm.

Folklore says the supposed gate to hell was so deep no one could see the bottom of it, and those who did attempt to enter the dark orifice encountered demonic human-animal hybrids. People claim cars won’t start near the castle and strange, bleeding beasts still roam the area after dark.

In reality, the castle was built as an administrative center to oversee the management of royal estates. But it still has some real-life demons in its past. Nazis occupied the fortress during World War II, and multiple myths abound about their supposed occult involvements there.

It’s possible to tour the mysterious castle and scope out any hauntings for yourself. You can view the old knight’s drawing room, the chapel that supposedly covers the gate to hell, and admire the old frescoes and murals adorning the building’s wall.

Know Before You Go

This is hard to get to with public transportation, as it it about 30 miles north of Prague, and the bus doesn't run too often. Best bet is to rent a car and drive through the countryside. There is parking at the base of the castle, and then a little hike uphill through the grounds.

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I have been Called many Names—but my Name is Woman Via Monika Carless

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“I was born in the middle of a storm
You won’t find me under the sun
My feet are chaos
I belong to the wild things” ~ Evy Michaels

~

I Am. Woman.

See me

Rising like Venus from an ocean of dreams.

The whispers of the ancients have woken my soul.

I am woman—birther of galaxies, mother to stars.

I am woman. The magic that knits souls into flesh within my womb.

I am woman, shedding blood that heals; the blood of the Divine Feminine Being.

I rise incandescent, in my power yet humble, divinely She.

Hear me…

“F*ck equality!” I shout at the sky. I am tired of fighting a patriarchal war.

I embody my fullness, Priestess, Mystic. I am the Sacred Song.

My strength is etched within the marrow of my bones.

I have been called by many names—Saint. Sinner. Witch. Whore.

Comfortable in my skin, comfortable with my color, comfortable with my tears.

Comfortable with the words that fail to describe my Wholeness.

I am shadows and light, beauty and terror.

Unashamed, uninhibited, sensual, seductive, intuitive, emotional, raw.

I am Woman. Goddess. Gaia. The incarnation of Pacha Mama.

I am Fire and Water and Soil.

F*ck equality…because I know who I am.

You can’t gift me something that is already mine.

Perseverance and wisdom course through my veins.

I am Sister to every woman ever born. Embracing. Encouraging. A container for Love.

See my feet on the ground

My drum in my arms

Wilderness in my howl

The moon in my blood

Sorcery in my cauldron

Wisdom in my heart

I will not be silenced, I will not be burned.

I am not too much.

I will not be told what is womanly or not.

Shakti. Magdalene. Maiden. Mother. Crone.

Temptress. Creatress. The sound of the Wind.

I am Woman.

I am All.

~

Author: Monika Carless
Image: Karen Cantu Q/Unsplash
Editor: Lieselle Davidson
Copy Editor: Nicole Cameron

The Little-Known History of Seafaring Pets

From war to exploration to pleasure cruising, pets have often accompanied us on the oceans.

BY VITTORIA TRAVERSO 

JANUARY 17, 2018

British sailors with a mascot from the surrendered German fleet, November 1918. NATIONAL ARCHIVE/45511031

IT GETS HARD TO TELL when you go back that far, but humans—Homo erectus in this case—probably crafted the first seaworthy vessel some 800,000 years ago. Since then, our ability to build boats and take to the seas has been critical to many of the most important human processes, from migration and commerce to exploration and, of course, war. But we did not become a seafaring species alone. Alongside brave seafaring men—and women, when they were allowed on board—there were often equally courageous pets.

When researchers conducted the first global study of ancient cat DNA they found that our feline friends were domesticated in the Near East and Egypt some 15,000 years ago, and later spread to Europe thanks in part to mariners, from the Phoenicians to the Vikings, who often took them on board to ward off rodents (another frequent human companion at sea, though not by design). A few thousand years later, the Romans took chickens on board military ships to predict the outcomes of battles—if the hens ate, victory could be expected. Roman general Publius Claudius Pulcher tried this trick before the Battle of Drepana against the Carthaginians in 249 B.C. He ignored the bad omen and threw the birds overboard. The Roman fleet was nearly wiped out. Despite this anecdote, the roles played by our maritime animal companions rarely make the history books. It is only recently that cultural institutions around the world have begun to pay attention to the history of animals at sea.

An Australian officer with a pet dog at the ship’s wheel, 1907–28. AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM COLLECTION, SAMUEL J. HOOD STUDIO

“For some reason a few years ago many maritime museums from the United Kingdom to Australia and the United States were hosting exhibitions about pets at sea, so I decided to start gathering information on this,” says Patricia Sullivan, founder and curator of the online Museum of Maritime Pets. “At first I thought this was going to be my retirement project, but almost overnight people started finding us and sending us photos, journal entries, or other written accounts on maritime pets.”

Sullivan founded the resource in 2006, and runs it with four volunteers from her home in Annapolis, Maryland. She defines a “maritime pet” pretty broadly: “We include animals living or working on or near the water, who collaborate with man in times of peace and war.”

Dogs, cats, and prescient chickens are included, but so are cormorants, which have been domesticated as fishing birds in parts of Asia, as well as much larger animals such as the bears and reindeer that played important roles in northern maritime history.

Simon was the first decorated cat in British military history. COURTESY MARITIME QUEST

ONE MARITIME ACTIVITY IN WHICH pets have shined is war. Sullivan shares the story of Simon, a cat serving on the British Royal Navy sloop HMS Amethyst, which was trapped on the the Yangtze River for three months after being attacked by the People’s Liberation Army during the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The brave cat was awarded the prestigious Dickin Medal by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, a British veterinary charity, for surviving injuries, killing off a rat infestation, and raising the crew’s morale. “The English army awarded many medals to dogs but it was the first cat,” Sullivan says.

“One of the most famous stories here in the U.S. is that of Sinbad, a Coast Guard mascot that served in World War II,” Sullivan adds. Sinbad was a mixed-breed dog that served aboard USCG Campbell, a 327-foot vessel that defended American convoys during World War II. Following a 1943 U-boat attack that almost sank Campbell, Sinbad became a media sensation. According to Eddie Lloyd, editor of Coast Guardmagazine, he was the canine incarnation of a true sailor. “Sinbad was a salty sailor, but he’s not a good sailor. He’ll never rate gold hash marks nor good conduct medals,” Lloyd wrote. Sometimes the dog ran amok in ports or caused trouble in foreign countries. “Perhaps that’s why Coast Guardsmen love Sinbad—He’s as bad as the worst and as good as the best of us.”

During his seven years aboard Campbell, Sinbad was as awarded six medals, including the American Defense Service Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. After his death, a granite monument was erected in his honor at Barnegat Light, New Jersey.

Sinbad and his fellow crewmen on the deck of USCG Campbell, 1943. PUBLIC DOMAIN

Pets were also trusted companions for maritime explorers. “Many pets were working animals on exploration vessels,” Sullivan says, with dogs used for hunting at ports of call and cats on exterminator duty. More than all of this, seafaring animals played important emotional roles on long, grueling, monotonous, dangerous voyages plagued by uncertainty. “Sailors were out at sea for months or years at time, so pets were important de-stressors” she says. “I think people would have gone mad without something to pet.”

A few years ago, Sari Mäenpää, a curator at the Forum Marinum Maritime Centre* in Turku, Finland, was working as a researcher at the Maritime Museum of Finland when she first really noticed the presence of pets in the museum’s image archives. “I came across loads of photos, especially from the sailing ship era, where cats and dogs were portrayed in ‘official’ crew photos, and suddenly I started seeing images of them everywhere.”

The crew of Scottish steamer SS Strathgarry, with the captain’s terrier and two cats. AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM COLLECTION, SAMUEL J. HOOD STUDIO

This proud visibility presents a puzzle: If pets were so important to crews, why is their presence so poorly documented? Mäenpää wonders if the culture of the sea doesn’t play a role. “The topic of animals at sea has not really been looked at or analysed critically before,” she says. “I would say that historians were reluctant to reveal aspects of maritime life that expose cracks in hegemonic masculinity.” So Mäenpää decided to investigate further and produced an article, “Sailors and Their Pets: Men and Their Companion Animals Aboard Early Twentieth-Century Finnish Sailing Ships,” recently published in the International Journal of Maritime History.

A seaman on Japanese cargo ship Yahiko Maru with a litter of puppies. AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM COLLECTION, SAMUEL J. HOOD STUDIO

Mäenpää explains in the article that, in the very hierarchical social environment of a ship at sea, displays of emotion were considered weak or feminine. Animals were the only tolerated objects of affection. “Sailors were not defensive or secretive about their need for pets,” she writes. “Pet owning was not in conflict with the rugged masculine self-image of sailors.”

Mäenpää offers the example of Kirri, a cat aboard Parma, a Finnish sailing vessel whose 1932 journey was documented by its co-owner, Alan John Villiers, an Australian who left behind many journals about his sailing adventures. Kirri was a “lovely little Persian kitten” that someone donated to Parma’s captain in Port Broughton, Australia. As chronicled by Villiers, Kirri quickly climbed up the social ladder of the ship’s menagerie—two rabbits, a few pigs, a dog, and another feline owned by young apprentice named Moses.

Finnish sailors playing with a cat. SARI MÄENPÄÄ/THE MARITIME MUSEUM OF FINLAND

“They are all important. We are intensely interested in all of them,” Villiers wrote. “The small Australian Persian kitten is the animal ‘boss’ of this kingdom; his word is law even to the three pigs, which he religiously chases every morning from the galley door, where they grunt at the cook for food.”

During the day, Kirri took naps in the captain’s hat, and in the evenings played with him on the poop deck (the one that forms the roof of a cabin in the rear of a ship). “I believe if Kirri went overboard we would put out a boat and go after him, no matter what the weather was like,” Villiers observed.

Sullivan shares another story of sailor-cat love: Mrs. Chippy, a tiger-striped tabby taken on board the Norwegian expedition ship Endurance by Harry McNish, the boat’s carpenter (whose was nicknamed “Chippy,” as many shipwrights were).

Sailors from the British ship HMS Amethyst playing with Simon. COURTESY MARITIME QUEST

Mrs. Chippy—who kept the name even after turning out to be male—walked, to the crew’s amazement, along the ship’s inch-wide rails in even the roughest of seas. When Endurance was famously trapped in pack ice in Antarctica in 1915, and captain Ernest Shackleton decided to abandon ship, he also resolved to shoot the “weaklings” on board—including several sled dogs and Mrs. Chippy. He wrote in his journal:

This afternoon Sallie’s three youngest pups, Sue’s Sirius, and Mrs. Chippy, the carpenter’s cat, have to be shot. We could not undertake the maintenance of weaklings under the new conditions. Macklin, Crean, and the carpenter seemed to feel the loss of their friends rather badly.

McNish reportedly never forgave Shackleton, even after their near-miraculous escape and rescue, and was denied the Polar Medal awarded to most of his fellow crewmen because of his attitude. In 2004, the New Zealand Antarctic Society built a life-size bronze statue of Mrs. Chippy, also featured on local stamps, on McNish’s grave in Wellington.

Finnish seamen with a cat. SARI MÄENPÄÄ/THE MARITIME MUSEUM OF ÅLAND

Today many countries no longer allow animals to work officially on ships, but, Sullivan explains, that does not stop maritime workers from picking up stray cats in ports. The long-standing tradition of maritime pets remains alive and well, however, among pleasure cruisers. One of the most famous examples is probably Monique, a hen that is traveling around the world with her owner, Frenchman Guirec Soudée, who in 2014 set sail from his native Brittany aboard a 39-foot boat named Yvinec.
“Compared with people, she doesn’t complain at all,” Soudée told BBC News in 2016. “She follows me everywhere, and doesn’t create any problems. All I need to do is shout ‘Monique!’ and she will come to me, sit on me, give me company. She is amazing.”

“The more I do research on this, the more I realize how much pets meant to sailors,” Sullivan says. “And this field is finally attracting attention from scholars too.” She cites a two-day international conference on maritime pets that will be hosted by the U.K.’s National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in 2019. As explained in its call for papers, the conference will seek to “shed fresh light” on maritime history by focusing on animals, which are “too often absent, or marginalised in passing references” in traditional maritime narratives. “I knew that there were a number of scholars working on this subject,” Sullivan concludes, “but the fact that they will host a whole conference on this suggests it’s almost becoming mainstream.”

* Correction: This article was updated to correct Sari Mäenpää’s current affiliation.

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Putting Ancient Recipes on the Plate

To better understand the distant past, it can help to taste and smell it.

BY JESSICA LEIGH HESTER 

JANUARY 19, 2018

Some frescoes from Pompeii feature the panis quadratus. This one is now at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. CARLO RASO/FLICKR/PUBLIC DOMAIN

TODAY THE BREAD IS CRISPED black as charcoal, and run through with cracks. A baker had kneaded and shaped the squat, round loaf, known as a panis quadratus, and slid it into an oven one day in A.D. 79, in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. We all know what happened next.

Over the last couple of hundred years, since the ash-shrouded cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were rediscovered, dozens of these loaves, carbonized by the sudden, searing heat of pyroclastic flows, have turned up. They’re relics of an astounding disaster, but there’s something intimate and familiar about them that collapses time and distance. You can imagine the routine of mixing and rolling the dough, the smell of fermenting starter, the sound of a perfect crust cracking under your thumb.

This carbonized panis quadratus was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/PUBLIC DOMAIN

That scene had lodged itself in Farrell Monaco’s mind when she volunteered at the seemingly endless archaeological site last summer, with the Pompeii Food and Drink project. Monaco, who chronicles her adventures and research in ancient food on her blog, Tavola Mediterranea, helped document features there related to eating—from a restaurant to a small peasant kitchen to altars where animals were sacrificed. “If you gave me a huge research grant and a lifetime supply of water and sunscreen, you’ll likely find me camped out, alongside Enzo the stray dog, in one of Pompeii’s 35 bakeries,” she wrote.

Each morning, Monaco picked her way across the site early, before it was beset by throngs of tourists. These walks, she says, stoked her imagination. She wondered about daily routines from 2,000 years ago, when the volcano was of little immediate concern and bakers and cooks fussed to fortify the busy city. What smells drifted from ovens in the morning? How did lunch taste? In pursuit of answers, Monaco decided to recreate a panis quadratus and bring the past into her kitchen.

Pompeii’s Thermopolium of Pompeii was a sort of ancient snack counter. CAROLE RADDATO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/CC-BY 2.0

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A Novel Romantic Gift: Making an Aphrodisiac Basket for your Lover. Via Seren Charrington-Hollins

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Food, love, romance, and sex have a long intertwined history; and it is rooted in our biology.

So, whenever I am looking for a romantic gift for my husband, it’s not really a surprise that I always end up including something food related in his gift bag—even if it’s just some dark chocolate.

This Valentine’s Day, however, I’ve stepped up the food element of my gift giving, and I’m creating an aphrodisiac basket.

I found myself struggling to think of a special and romantic gift for Christmas for my beloved, and then it occurred to me that instead of chocolates, I would create a basket filled with foods and delicacies reputed to have aphrodisiac qualities.

I didn’t want to just go out and buy a load of food from the supermarket; instead, I wanted to create some homemade goodies which I could lavish some love into the making of and also give some real thought and effort to. So my “aphrodisiac basket for a lover” is a mixture of shop-bought goodies and homemade ones.

My guide to creating an aphrodisiac basket.

Included in my basket is:

Homemade cherry brandy
Brandy-infused cherries (ideal for hand feeding)
Red wine
Homemade black truffle tapenade
A watermelon
Homemade fig jam
Dark chocolate
Homemade dark chocolate & chili truffles
Tropea onions

Red wine.

in 2009, an Italian research group published a study that showed a correlation between drinking wine (specifically red wine) and an increased sexual appetite in women. The study surveyed 800 Italian women who drank red wine, other alcohol, or no alcohol at all. The red wine drinkers scored two points higher than other alcohol drinkers and four more points than teetotalers.

Now, my husband is not a wine drinker. Instead, he’s a rum and cola man; but he loves cherries, so I’ve included a small bottle of red for me and a homemade cherry brandy for him.
~
Homemade Cherry Brandy Recipe.

This takes six weeks to infuse, but it’s well worth the wait. Not only do you get fabulous cherry brandy to warm you up on a wintery night, but you also end up with luscious brandy-soaked cherries that are great for eating by themselves—or, for a divine treat, dip them in dark chocolate.

Ingredients:

1 kg cherries
1 litre brandy (I used the cheapest bottle on the shelf, because there is absolutely no point using a fine cognac in this recipe)
300g golden caster sugar

Method:

Find a jar that has a tight-fitting lid that is large enough to take the cherries and the liquid. Sterilise the jar; I wash my jar in warm, soapy water and then pop it in the dishwasher on a hot cycle.

Prick the cherries several times and place into the jar. Leave the stones in. Add the sugar and the brandy. Give the jar a good shake. Place the jar somewhere where you will see it daily to remind you to shake it every day for the next week.

For the remaining five weeks, shake the bottle weekly, tasting it occasionally to see if the taste is “cherry” enough for your taste buds. Once it is ready, strain back into sterile bottles. You can now drink it—or, if you can manage to keep your lips off it, leave it for 12 months to mature. The strained cherries are ready for eating or using in recipes.

Black Truffles.

For thousands of years they have been prized by humans as an aphrodisiac, but while a fresh black truffle may be a great culinary treat, it’s not great for including in an aphrodisiac hamper, so I have made a tapenade that can be spread on little crackers and fed by hand.

Ingredients:

60g pitted black olives
1 Tablespoon drained capers
3 medium cloves garlic (crushed)
5 fresh basil leaves
1 Tablespoon loosely packed fresh oregano
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil, as required
50g black truffle slices

Method:

Place the pitted black olives, the capers, garlic, herbs, mustard, and lemon juice in a blender and pulse until smooth.

Add a little drizzle of olive oil as required to ensure a smooth paste is achieved.

Transfer the mixture to a sterile jar and top the mixture off with olive oil before sealing.

Label with recipe name and date and keep in a cool area until ready to use.

Refrigerate after opening.

Watermelon.

This fruit contains citrulline, which relaxes the blood vessels in much the same way as Viagra does. It a great food for cutting up and finger feeding.

Fig and Brandy Jam.

This jam is thick—almost like a compote—and it’s delicious eaten with fresh bread and soft oozy cheeses. I really like to serve this with baked camembert or brie.

Ingredients:
1kg soft, ripe figs
400g granulated sugar
25ml brandy
Juice of 1 lemon
100ml water
1 tbsp Liquid pectin

Method:

Remove the stalks from the figs, then slice them quite thinly. Place them in a heavy-based saucepan, with the brandy and water.

Cook them for five minutes on a low heat, so the juices run and the figs begin to break down.

Add the sugar, the lemon juice, and the pectin. The lemon juice and the pectin will help the jam to set.

Slowly bring the mixture to boil, stirring all the time so that the figs don’t catch on the bottom of the pan. This is a jam that requires constant stirring and attention. The mixture should become quite thick.

Boil for approximately five minutes. Keep stirring gently throughout. Reduce the heat if it bubbles too furiously and add a drop of water if the mixture looks to be drying out—but remember it is meant to be a thick consistency.

Turn off the heat, and let the jam cool down for five minutes.

Spoon the mixture into well sterilized jars, seal, and label.

Once cooled, this jam will keep for up to 12 months unopened. Once opened, they will keep for around two weeks in the fridge.

Pickled Tropea Onions.

Tropea onions are said to be such a strong aphrodisiac that in ancient Greece, priests were banned from eating them. If you are lucky enough to be able to buy these onions raw, then you can pickle them yourself. But if, like me, you struggle to find them raw, then you can either grow them from seed for next year or buy them already pickled, which is what I choose to do.

Dark Chocolate.

Dark chocolate is considered to be an aphrodisiac. Not only is it an energy booster, but it contains L-arginine, an amino acid that can be an effective natural aphrodisiac for both women and men.

It works by increasing nitric oxide and promoting blood flow to the sexual organs, which increases sensation, satisfaction, and desire, all of which make chocolate a must for an aphrodisiac basket.

Chocolate also stimulates and lifts the mood. Chocolate has earned its reputation as a libido food because it is a rich source of phenylethylamine, sometimes referred to as the “love supplement” or the “romance chemical.”

As a stimulant, phenylethylamine can induce sensations of euphoria—and it’s naturally released by your brain when you’re are in love. In turn, it promotes the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which increases feelings of well-being, joy, and pleasure.

I include not only a good quality block of dark chocolate in my lover’s hamper, but some homemade chili chocolate truffles. Chili peppers are said to aid the release of powerful endorphins and also to increase the heart rate

Chocolate Chili Truffles.

Ingredients:

250g good-quality dark chocolate (minimum 70 percent cocoa solids)
125ml double cream
25g salted butter
1 pinch of sea salt
50g good-quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoon of chili powder

Method:

Break the chocolate into chunks and place them in a small bowl. In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil, add the chili powder and butter, and take off the heat.

Pour the cream over the chocolate chunks and leave to stand for a few minutes, giving the chocolate a chance to melt. When you get the cream to the boil, you don’t want it boiling for too long; it’s just a case of bringing it to the boil, adding the chili powder and the butter, and then getting it off the heat.

Stir the mixture and leave it to cool for two minutes. Stir it again to make sure it’s mixed thoroughly, then cover and refrigerate for at least two hours or until set.

Place the cocoa in shallow bowl or cake tin. With a teaspoon, scoop out little balls of the set truffle mixture. Roll in the palm of your hand, then roll in the cocoa powder.

Once all the truffle mixture is used up, place them in the fridge to firm up for about half an hour before placing them into a gift box or serving them.

With your goodies made and lined up, simply place the items in a basket and write a note explaining the idea of a aphrodisiac basket. I like to include little cards explaining the properties of each ingredient.

Enjoy!