
September 16 is National Choose Your Chocolate Day, an opportunity to celebrate what might be the world’s sweetest invention. This perfect combination of cocoa, milk, and sugar has been celebrated for thousands of years and has graced the tables of kings, presidents, celebrities and, of course, your grandma.
National Choose Your Chocolate Day corresponds with the birthday of one of chocolate’s modern visionaries, a woman who no doubt belongs in the pantheon of great chocolatiers, Mary See of See’s Candies.
See’s Candies has sponsored National Choose Your Chocolate Day to honor this confection and the woman whose innovative and high-quality recipes have laid the foundation for nearly 100 years of candy-making excellence. The company is offering many fun, informative, and exciting ways to celebrate Mary See and her chocolate legacy. The quiz below will help you decide which chocolate candy matches your personality.
- 1400 BC – Archaeologists excavating an Ancient Aztec site in modern-day Honduras discovered pottery with cacao residue nearly 3,500 years old, indicating chocolate was consumed at least that far back
- 1550 – Chocolate was first brought to Europe.
- 1600s – In this age of exploration two delicacies made their way into Europe — chocolate and sugar. The combination became all the rage in royal courts around the continent and remained a drink for the very wealthy for several centuries.
- 1770s – Unsweetened, chocolate was included in soldiers’ rations during the American Revolutionary War.
- 1847 – Though sugar had been added for centuries, it was only in the early 19th century that chocolate’s bitter taste was eliminated. Joseph Frye in 1847 created the very first chocolate bar setting the stage for a cocoa revolution.
- 1854 – The matriarch of See’s Candies organization is born on Howe Island in Ontario, Canada. She would live and raise her children near here until 1921.
- 1921 – Mary See and her son, Charles, move to Los Angeles and open the very first See’s Candies location using Mary See’s own recipes and philosophies on quality. Within four years there are more than a dozen LA locations making it a true American Dream story (by way of Canada).
- 1921 – 1945 – The twin economic upheavals of the Great Depression and World War II saw many of See’s rivals close shop. It was a mixture of the high quality of Mary’s recipes and the clever business acumen of Charles See that helped the brand thrive and grow.
- 1985 – After years of taste testing, Truffles were introduced to the See’s line in 1985. And we’ve never looked back.
- 2003 – Media and confectionery companies started to promote the holiday, increasing public awareness about National Choose Your Chocolate Day.
- 2007 – Gourmet and exotic chocolate flavors took the spotlight, celebrating the wide variety of chocolates available worldwide.
- 2011 – the world’s largest chocolate bar was created in the UK. It weighed a whopping 12,770 pounds (5,792 kilograms) and measured 13 feet 1 inch (4 meters) by 13 feet 1 inch
- 2018 – The holiday began highlighting sustainable and fair-trade chocolate practices, having a growing focus on ethically sourced cacao.
- 2020 – See’s announced the launch of National Choose Your Chocolate Day. This day was chosen because it is Mary See’s birthday.
- See’s makes over 26 million pounds of candy every year!
- See’s Los Angeles candy kitchen played a starring role in the hilarious I Love Lucy “Job Switching” episode.
- Believe it or not, eating chocolate can actually benefit your health. Chocolate contains natural antioxidants that can help reduce inflammation, improve mood and protect against heart disease. So indulge in some chocolaty goodness – your body will thank you!
- Chocolate Guide –
- Square Chocolates. Did you know that square and rectangle chocolate are almost always filled with caramel or toffee? It’s because they typically need to dry them first and cut them into squares before they cover them in chocolate.
- Rounded Chocolates. These are almost always filled with cream or ganache, although it could be raspberry, truffles or vanilla cream.
- Bumpy Chocolates. Chocolates that have bumps are typically made from nuts like cashews or almonds.
- Shiny Wrappers. This is typically a chocolate that is filled with a liquid that is gooey.
- Milk and dark chocolate come from the cacao bean, which grows on the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), an evergreen from the family Malvaceae (other members of the family include okra and cotton). Thus this makes the sweet treat a vegetable.
- Believe it or not, eating chocolate can benefit your health. Chocolate contains natural antioxidants that can help reduce inflammation, improve mood and protect against heart disease.
- According to recent statistics, Switzerland consumes the most chocolate, at a whopping 22 pounds per person, per year! Amazingly, in the United States, the average person consumes only 9.9 pounds of chocolate every year.
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