Chocolate lovers rejoice on National Chocolate Covered Anything Day! December 16th offers the chocolate day you’ve been waiting for. On this day, dip and drizzle your favorite foods in every kind of chocolate imaginable.
If you could cover anything in chocolate, what would it be?
- Chocolate is a processed, typically sweetened food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC.
- The first recorded “Death by Chocolate” case occurred in the 17th Century in Chiapas, Mexico. Upper class Spaniards were so addicted to chocolate that they refused to adhere to a church dictated chocolate ban that forbade them from eating or drinking any food during the church services. As a result, the people of the town refused not only listen to the ban but chose to attend worship services in convents instead. The Bishop who passed the law was later found dead due to poison being mixed into his daily cup of chocolate.
- The word “chocolate” comes from the Aztec word, “Xocolatl”, which ironically means “bitter water”.
- The word chocolate was first recorded in English in 1604, though England’s first cup of chocolate was not brewed until 1647.
- Americans eat an average of 22 pounds of candy each year, or approximately 2.8 billion pounds annually which is split almost equally between chocolate and candy. Most Europeans consume far less than this.
- While the US produces the most chocolate and consume the most pounds every year, the Swiss consume the most per capita, followed closely by the English.
- Besides the obvious cheese and ice cream industries, American chocolate manufacturers use about 1.5 billion pounds of milk and consume approximately 3.5 million pounds of whole milk yearly.
- Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40% of the world’s almonds and 20% of the world’s peanuts.
- Chocolate is technically responsible for the microwave.
- Every Russian and American space voyage has included chocolate bars.
- On the fourth visit of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, he presented cocoa beans to the Spanish Court. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle were not impressed and dismissed the chocolate as bizarre tribal concoctions.
- Chocolate fountain machines are essential to covering anything and everything in chocolate. They just make the chocolatey job 10 times easier. According to Exclusive Chocolates, chocolate fountain machines were invented by Ben Brisman and popularized in 1991 by a Canadian company called Design & Realisation. Then by 2003, a Californian company called Sephra stepped in and created their own version of the chocolate fountain.
- Chocolate covered strawberries are probably the first things that come to mind when you think of something covered in chocolate. And it’s not a surprise since it’s one of the tastiest and most requested desserts.
- Chocolate covered bacon: Many people enjoy the taste of bacon and chocolate. The best way to enjoy this is by placing your bacon on a skewer and then popping them in the oven until they’re crisp. Twenty to 25 minutes at 400 degrees F should do the trick. Cover in melted chocolate.
- Chocolate covered jalapeños isn’t something people typically crave when thinking of chocolate covered food. But why not give it a try?
- If you’re someone who isn’t a fan of spicy things, however, then you can try chocolate covered bell peppers, which the Huffington Post describes as “strangely delicious.”
- People spend more than 7 billion dollars a year on chocolate.
- Chocolate does not cause or aggravate acne, this is a myth.
- Dark chocolate is most popular among men.
- More than twice as many women than men eat and crave chocolate.
- The scientific name for the tree that chocolate comes from, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.”
- The first chocolate bar was produced by Cadbury in England in 1842.
- 71% of American chocolate eaters prefer milk chocolate.
- While 75% of chocolate purchases are made by women all year long, during the days before Valentine’s Day, on Valentine’s Day 75% of the chocolate purchases are made by men.
- The average person will consume 10,000 chocolate bars in a lifetime.
- The Aztecs once used cacao beans for currency.
- The Mars company invented M&M’s for soldiers during World War II.
- Hershey’s produces over 70 million chocolate Kisses every day
- Dark chocolate has been scientifically shown to be beneficial to human health. Milk chocolate, white chocolate, and other varieties are not.
- Women tend to prefer white chocolate, while men generally prefer bittersweet or dark chocolate.
- One chocolate chip can give a person enough energy to walk 150 feet. Need the energy to walk a mile? Consume just 35 chips.
- Hawaii is the only US state that grows cacao beans.
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