Infusion Chocolates are Here!
The Speckled Hen Inn has partnered with Infusion Chocolates of Madison to bring you the most luscious, hand painted edible fine art you’ll find anywhere. These beautiful chocolate truffels promise to woo even the most discriminating palette. They are now available in our Romance Package, which is accompanied by a bottle of chilled sparkling bubbly! Ann Culligan, proprietor of Infusion Chocolates of Madison, and Chocolatier Extraordinaire, chooses the most popular chocolates for each box. These chocolates are so special because of their infused flavorings and cocoa imported from South America. Then, after each individual flavorful piece of chocolate is created, each piece is carefully hand painted, creating a spectacular edible piece of fine art!
Why do we love chocolate so much?
According to Psychology Today, we crave chocolate because it is good! It tastes good. It smells good. It feels good when it melts on our tongue. And all of those ‘feelings’ are the result of our brain releasing chemicals in response to each chocolate experience. The experience of eating chocolate results in feel-good neurotransmitters (dopamine) being released in particular brain regions. These regions include the frontal lobe, hippocampus, and hypothalamus.
Dopamine is released when you experience anything that you enjoy. Whether it is intimacy, laughing or watching your favorite team win it causes dopamine to be released. This reward circuit is partially hard-wired by genetics. However, it learns, changes and responds to your specific preferences based on your life experiences. This malleability of the brain is what makes each of us unique.
By simply using one neurotransmitter system to associate rewards with actions, an efficient and powerful brain network evolved so that a positive outcome would be repeated. The dopamine signal sent through the reward circuit brings about positive feelings and assessments of the situation in the frontal lobe. This creates a memory of the experience including where, who, what and why and links that to the positive experiences via the hippocampus. And when food is involved, the hypothalamus gathers information about the caloric and nutrient content for future hunger and satiety signals.
