Categories: Lifestyle

10 Facts You Never Knew About Chocolate

Chocolate has been recognized as a favorite treat to people all over the world. But just how much do you know about this bean and how it made its way to be your delicious dessert? Learn all about the key moments in the history of the cocoa beans and you will come to appreciate your next chocolate bar even more!

IMAGE: PEXELS

1. Chocolate Is A Vegetable (kind of)

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans that naturally grow on trees in hot places like Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, and Nigeria. One can say that the most essential part of this choco-treat is truly a bean, which is kind of a vegetable. So if veggies are supposed to be good for you, then chocolate is the ultimate cure for all diseases. Ok, maybe not, but the cocoa bean has many good properties, it helps blood circulation and can help relieve asthma symptoms.

2. Cocoa Beans Date Back To 1250 BCE

Inhabitants of Mexico and South America are believed to have grown cocoa beans as far back as 1250 BCE.

3. Hot Chocolate Is The First Treat Made Of Cocoa Beans

The first product made of the cocoa beans was hot chocolate, as it only required them to melt to a liquid state. The first hot chocolate dates back to ancient Mexican and Aztec cultures when it had a primarily ceremonial use and a rather bitter taste due to its purity.

4. White Chocolate Isn’t Really Chocolate

White chocolate does not contain cocoa beans or liquors, which is why it isn’t classified as standard chocolate. Still, it does make use of cocoa butter, which is how it managed to cling onto its chocolate title.

5. Cocoa Beans Were Once Used As A Currency

The ancient Aztecs appreciated their cocoa beans so much that they used them as a currency. To put this into perspective, imagine hitting the jackpot on the most popular American lottery, the Powerball. After a few winner-less draws, you could be in for the sweetest treat of your lifetime!

6. Cacao Is The Same As Cocoa

In case your spell-check has malfunctioned, rest assured that the words cocoa and cacao refer to the same beans and can be used interchangeably.

7. French Leaders Loved Chocolate

Napoleon enjoyed the taste of chocolate in its solid state, and it to be served along with wine at all times. Marie Antoinette is another French leader known for her sweet tooth, but she preferred it in a liquid state, as hot chocolate.

8. Making Chocolate Is No Treat

Chocolate does not grow on trees – only cocoa beans do. The process of turning these ‘veggies’ into your favorite sweets is hard work – you will need about 400 beans in order to make a single bar of good quality chocolate.

9. “Eating Chocolate” Was Produced In Britain

The British confectioners, Fry and Sons, were first to create chocolate in its solid form back in 1847. The ‘eating chocolate’, as they called it, was made of sugar, cocoa butter, and liquor.