26 Yummy Facts About Chocolates

Chocolates are made from roasted ground cocoa seeds that is further made in the form of liquid, paste, or in a block an may also be used as a flavouring ingredient in some other foods as well. The seeds of the cocoa tree have a strong bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavour. After the fermentation of the seeds, the beans are dried, cleaned and then roasted. Then the shell is peeled to produce the cacao nibs which are then ground to cocoa mass and thus we get unadulterated chocolate in rough form.

The history of chocolate started in Mesoamerica. The fermented chocolate drinks date back to 450 BC. The Aztecs claimed that cocoa seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the god of knowledge and wisdom, and in that time the seeds once had so much value that they were used as a form of currency.
There are contradicting reports that when chocolate arrived in Europe. The researchers agreed that it first arrived in Spain. There is also another story which states that Christopher Columbus an explorer discovered cacao beans after intercepting a trade ship on a journey to America and from there brought the beans back to spain with him in the year 1502.
The first solid chocolate bar ever produced was by Fry’s of Bristol, England in the year 1847. Fry’s Chocolate Cream became the first commercially produced chocolate bar in 1866. In the year 1912, the Goo Goo Cluster was the first commercially produced combination bar; it included a combination of roasted peanuts, marshmallow, caramel, and nougat.
To make one pound of chocolate 400 cocoa beans are required.
Theobroma cacao is the scientific name of cocoa tree.
The cocoa tree is so fragile and roots of it are so shallow because of which it is very unsafe for workers to climb the trunk and reach the pods on the higher boughs.
On average each cocoa tree will yield 20 to 30 pods per year and each pod contains 20 to 40 beans.
Cocoa tree can live for about 100 years but are productive for about 60 years.
A commercial cocoa bean farm yields from 100 to over 3000kg of beans per hectare.
There are three main varieties of cocoa plant which are Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. The most widely used is the Forastero, comprising 80–90% of the world production of cocoa. Cocoa beans of the Criollo variety are rarest and considered a delicacy.
In 1875 the first mil chocolate was invented by a swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter. He invented milk chocolate by mixing powdered milk with dark chocolate.
It has a unique melting point as it starts to melt between 86°F and 90°F. The average temperature of human body is 98.6°F which is higher than the melting point of chocolates. So the heat from our hands raises the temperatures of the chocolates which cause it to melt.
The Ivory Coast and Ghana are the two largest producers of cocoa beans: together they cultivate more than half of the world´s cocoa. These two are followed by Indonesia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil and Ecuador in terms of most cocoa production.
ITC’s luxury chocolate brand Fabelle Exquisite Chocolates ‘Trinity – Truffles Extraordinaire’ is the most expensive chocolate in the world. It also booked in the place of guiness world record for being the most expensive. It was launched in Indiain the month of October 2019 and was priced at ₹4.3 lakh (approx $6150) for 1kg of Chocolate.
Cadbury Wispa Gold Chocolate Bar is the most expensive chocolate bar in the world with a price tag of $1600.
The plain chocolate bar made by the Grand Candy Company is the heaviest chocolate ever made and it weighed 4410 kilogrammes (9702 lbs).
Dark chocolate has numerous health benefits such as may improve blood flow and lower blood pressure, Raises HDL and protects LDL from oxidation, may reduce risk of heart disease, protect skin from the sun, improves brain functioning and provides antioxidants to our body.
7 July is celebrated as world chocolate day.
Switzerland has the highest chocolate per capita with consumption of around 8.8 Kg.
The top four countries that are responsible for the production of most chocolate are United States, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. It is estimated that Western Europe accounts for approximately 35% of total world chocolate production, while the U.S accounts for 30% of the total production of chocolates worldwide.
According to study eating just one chocolate bar a day can reduce risk of stroke by 23 per cent.
Consumption of chocolate continues to grow year by year, in the year 2019 it was expected that the total consumption of chocolates will reach 7.7 million metric tons.
350 million bars of one of the most popular Cadbury’s Dairy Milk are sold every year. That is almost one million dairy milk bars each day.
There are 600 flavouring compounds in chocolates.
Chocolate are toxic to dogs, cats and other pets. Its ingestion can result in significant illness and is toxic because it contains a chemical called theobromine which is not suitable for pets. It also contains caffeine which is not appropriate for dogs and cats.
Eating too much chocolate may result in adverse effects on humans too. Eating chocolates in excess can give adverse effect on nervous and cardiovascular systems, rise stomach problem, palpitations or even insomnia.