If you are a chocolate lover, December 16th is your day! If you could cover anything in chocolate, what would it be? It’s National Chocolate Covered Anything Day! There are so many foods that are improved by covering them in chocolate, we do not have time to list them all. So go ahead, indulge, as this day is a chocolate lovers dream come true.
The history of chocolate begins in Mesoamerica. Fermented beverages made from chocolate date back to 1900 BC. The Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the god of wisdom, and the seeds once had so much value that they were used as a form of currency. After chocolate’s arrival in Europe from oversea expeditions in the sixteenth century, sugar was added to it and it became popular throughout all of Europe, first among the ruling classes of the European societies, and then among the common people. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, described its use more generally.
- 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. Scientists were experimenting with micro waves in hopes of creating better radar detectors and in the wake of World War II, scientists were testing devices called magnetrons. A scientist named Percy Spencer entered the lab with a chocolate bar in his pocket and realized it quickly began to melt. Spencer then realized that the magnetron could potentially be used to cook food. He successfully tried popping corn and then attempted to cook an egg which cooked so quickly, it blew up in his face.
- 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.
- A recent study indicates that when men crave food, they tend to crave fat and salt. When women crave food, they tend to desire chocolate.
- Aztec Emperor Montezuma drank 50 golden goblets of hot chocolate, dyed red and flavored with chili peppers, every day.
- Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot.
- The average American consumes more than 10 pounds of chocolate every year.
- 76% of Americans say the ears of the chocolate bunnies should be eaten first. 5% think chocolate feet of the bunnies should be eaten first. 4% think the chocolate tails should go first.
- One ounce of milk chocolate has only a little more caffeine than the amount of caffeine in a cup of decaffeinated coffee. White chocolate has no caffeine.
- 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). This makes the most important part of the sweet treat a vegetable.
- The Aztecs loved and valued the cacao bean so highly that they used it as currency during the height of their civilization.
- The Fry and Sons shop concocted what they called “eating chocolate” in 1847 by combining cocoa butter, sugar, and chocolate liquor. This was a grainy, solid form of the treat.
- The French leader, Napoleon, demanded that wine and chocolate be made available to him and his senior advisers even during intense military campaigns.
- Way back in 1842, the Cadbury company made the very first chocolate bar. The company is still in existence, and is perhaps most famous for their delightful Easter-themed treats.
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