The U.S. Consumes Over 90% Of The World’s Cashew Crop.

National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day is observed each year on April 21st. Not unlike other nuts, cashews and chocolate get along well together. Of course, chocolate lovers savor the combination of a nutty crunch and rich, creamy chocolate.

• 800 AD – The Aztecs start growing cacao plants and drinking chocolate.
• 1500s – Hernán Cortés, an explorer from Spain, introduced chocolate to Spain.
• 1558 – Portuguese colonists began cultivating cashew trees in northeastern Brazil and exporting them to Goa and other parts of India and East Africa, laying the groundwork for global cashew production.
• 1847 – British firm J. S. Fry & Sons produces what is widely regarded as the first solid chocolate bar suitable for eating, transforming chocolate from a drink into a confectionery that can coat or embed nuts.
• 1875 – Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter, working with Henri Nestlé’s condensed milk, perfects milk chocolate, creating a milder, creamier product that becomes a standard coating for nuts and other inclusions.
• 1900s – Companies like Nestle popularized chocolate-covered nuts. As industrial chocolate making expands in Europe and the United States, confectioners begin mass-producing chocolate-covered almonds, peanuts, and other nuts, establishing a template later used for cashews.
• 1954 – The government of India establishes the Cashew Export Promotion Council, helping structure cashew processing and export; India soon becomes a dominant global supplier of cashew kernels used in snacks and confectionery.
• 1990s – Specialty chocolatiers in Europe and North America popularize gourmet chocolate-covered nuts with high-quality couverture chocolate and carefully roasted kernels, a trend that includes upscale chocolate-covered cashews.
• 2000s – National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day is created in honor of these tasty treats.
• ‘Theobroma cacao,’ the Latin name for the cacao plant, roughly translates to ‘the food of the Gods.’
• The cashew is a tree from the family Anacardiaceae.  Its English name comes from Portuguese for the fruit of the cashew tree “caju.”
• Originally native to Northeastern Brazil, cashew trees are now widely grown in tropical climates for their cashew fruit and nuts.
• The shell of the cashew nut is toxic, which is why producers shell the cashew before selling it to consumers.
• Pistachio, mango, cashew, and poison ivy are in the same family.
• Cashews are native to Costa Rica and Central America.
• The fresh cashew nut has a substance inside that produces a big burn and rash on the skin and in the mouth. This is a highly valuable product known as Cashew Nut Shell Liquid or CNSL.  CNSL is an ingredient for specialty chemicals and high-value polymers.
• A quite interesting experience is to burn a raw cashew nut in a wood fire. This CNSL is highly flammable, and while it burns, it produces impressive tiny explosions.
• India is the world’s largest producer of cashews, with Brazil second and Africa a distant third.
• Cashews are high in fat, so if left at room temperature, they won’t stay fresh for long.
• Chocolate is so popular that there are many different celebrations of chocolate each year.
• White chocolate is not chocolate; it is a white candy made with cocoa butter.
• Cashews are kidney-shaped seed that grows on the bottom of a cashew apple.
• 400 cocoa beans make up one pound of chocolate
• 1 ounce of raw cashews contains 157 calories.
• Cacao was once used as a currency.
• Cashews are very nutritious; they are packed with protein and many essential minerals.
• Asian cuisine is known for using cashews in its recipes.
• The United States consumes over 90% of the world’s cashew crop.
• ‘Theobroma cacao,’ the Latin name for the cacao plant, roughly translates to ‘the food of the Gods.’

Sources:

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