There are not many things in life we can say we all love, but chocolate is probably one of them.
Because we celebrate Chocolate Day today – and Milk Chocolate Day on 28 July – here are some fun chocolate facts.
- The word chocolate comes from the Aztec word xocoatl. Xocoatl was a bitter, spicy drink made from cacao beans. Aztec emperor Montezuma II drank many cups of chocolate every day.
- When the Aztec empire ruled most of Mexico, chocolate was widely consumed and cacao seeds were a form of currency.
- Chocolate gives you a mental high that gets your heart pounding more than kissing does.
- The first chocolate bar was invented in 1847 by Joseph Fry.
- The chocolate industry is worth about R1,48 trillion a year.
- The most valuable chocolate bar in the world is a 100-year-old Cadbury’s chocolate bar from Captain Robert Scott’s first discovery expedition to the Antarctic. It sold for nearly R10 000 at an auction in 2001.
- Chocolate milk was invented in Jamaica. Irish botanist Sir Hans Sloane is usually given credit for mixing chocolate with milk when he was in Jamaica in the early 1700s – although he probably wasn’t the first on the island to do so.
- Chocolate milk is a good post-workout recovery drink.
- There is little caffeine in chocolate. Most bars have about 10mg caffeine but darker chocolate can have as much caffeine as a can of Coca-Cola.
- More than two-thirds of the world’s cacao is grown in Africa – Ivory Coast alone produces 33% of the world’s cacao supply.
- Chocolate has over 600 flavour compounds. Red wine has 200.
- Theobromine, the chemical in chocolate that’s poisonous to dogs, can kill you as well, but only if you eat thousands of bars.
