There is a right way to enjoy chocolate.

Just ask Anne Stewart, educator and Mayan historian.

And then take her advice: Take a bite and let the piece stick to the roof of your mouth, then savor all the flavors as it slowly melts with the body's temperature.

Stewart will divulge more chocolate secrets at noon Monday, when she talks about Chocolate: Food of the Gods at Miami Dade College's Homestead Campus, 500 College Ter.

She will trace the history of chocolate, from the first cacao trees to Hershey's chocolate world in Pennsylvania. The audience will be offered a small piece of chocolate with chile after the lecture.

The free lecture is part of the Bea Peskoe Lunchtime Lecture Series, sponsored by the Homestead Center for the Arts. It is being presented in commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The series was started in 2004 in honor of Bea Peskoe, who dedicated herself to enriching the community for more than 50 years. Her late husband, Irving, had been mayor of Homestead.

An anthropologist at heart, Stewart has been studying the Mayan culture since the late 1960s. She became interested at an early age, while visiting Mounds State Park in her Indiana hometown. The park contained at least five earthen mounds from The Adena, a Pre-Columbia Native American culture.

In high school, still curious about indigenous cultures, she hit the Indiana State Library. Through the reading, she began learning about the Mayans and chocolate.

``I just love chocolate. And when I found out that it came from the New World, I had to know more,'' Stewart said.

The indigenous people of Central and South America have been using chocolate beans from the cacao plant for centuries. From the beans they made chocolate mixed with honey, flowers and chiles for various uses, such as medicine, to forge alliances and for religious purposes.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage to the New World with many goods, including cacao beans. Its popularity began spreading through Europe, and eventually, the entire world.

``Chocolate was primarily spread through marriage. When ladies got married, they took their native cooks with them,'' Stewart said.

Stewart also will discuss health benefits of chocolate. When consumed in its purest form, chocolate can help reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. It also believed to be an aphrodisiac.

``Most products from Hershey's and other makers have a ton of sugar. That's what gives you acne. In its purest form, cacao is very good for you,'' she said.

Stewart holds a doctorate in education from Nova Southeastern University. She has taught every level from preschool to community education classes for more than 30 years but is now retired.

In addition to presenting at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables and at archaeological societies around the state, Stewart has lectured aboard cruise ships headed for Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean.

Her husband, Ray Stewart, is also a history buff. He recently lectured on Florida Lighthouses for the same Bea Peskoe Series.

``I like the lighthouses, but I am much more interested in the people,'' she said.

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