What better way to celebrate World Chocolate Day on July 7th than indulging in some chocolate facts? Of course, after you’ve indulged in eating some chocolate (but that was a given).
Here are 10 facts about chocolate:
1. Chocolate cravings have been proven to only be satisfied by chocolate itself - nothing else will satisfy the cravings.
2. Chocolate has three times more flavour compounds than red wine. Red wine has 200, and chocolate has over 600.
3. It takes about 400 cocoa beans to make only one pound of chocolate. One cacao pod will contain about 42 beans.
4. Each cacao tree (called Theobroma cacao) produces approximately 2500 cacao beans. The trees can live to be 200 years old but there is typically only 25 years where it can produce viable cacao beans.
5. A British shop called “Fry and Sons” created “eating chocolate” in 1847 by combining cocoa butter, sugar, and chocolate liquor. Joseph Fry appears to be the inventor of solid chocolate as we know it.
6. Milk chocolate was invented a while later in 1875 over in Switzerland, where a man named Daniel Peter added condensed milk to his chocolate recipe.
7. White chocolate is not technically considered chocolate because it doesn’t contain any cocoa solids or chocolate liquor. However, it does use cocoa butter but that doesn’t qualify it as official chocolate.
8. When chocolate is covered in a white speckled layer, it is still edible but it will be dry and less flavourful. This happens when the fat molecules inside the chocolate rise to the surface and recrystallize. You’ll often notice this if you find a sealed chocolate bar that’s been sitting in your cupboard for a while.
9. “Baking” chocolate isn’t just for baking. It’s actually named after the chocolate company “Walter Baker Chocolate” and not named after its purpose.
10. Chocolate is the only food item you can eat that melts between 86° F (30° C) and 90° F (32° C), which is below human body temperature. This is why it is so easy for chocolate to melt in your mouth.
Our favourite chocolate accessories: