If you were to pick your favorite dessert, what would you choose? Ice cream? Donuts? Maybe Pie. How about cake? No matter what you pick, there is a high likelihood that your favorite dessert either contains chocolate or is chocolate flavored. Chocolate is, without question, the most popular sweet food in the world. People around the world consume more than 3 million tons of cocoa beans every single year according to analytics! What is chocolate? Chocolate is the byproduct of a fruit from a tree called “Theobroma Cacao,” which roughly translates to “food of the gods” in Greek. These trees are native to the Amazon, which is located in South America. These trees bear cocoa fruit that looks very similar to papaya. This fruit contains seeds which are harvested, fermented and then refined into the chocolate we know today. Want to learn more? Read below for more chocolate candy wall art facts.
Simply Sweet
- Did you know that chocolate works as a very powerful mental stimulant. It has been studied to have the power to widen blood vessels and even reduce blood pressure. Both of these things help to keep people awake and more focused for hours. A recent study at an American University put chocolate to test by studying 120 subjects. After being fed 60% cacao dark chocolate, the subjects were kept awake and alert above the levels that scientists had predicted!
- Chocolate has had many culinary uses over the last several thousand years. Chocolate was even used to make alcohol! Around 1400 to 1100 B.C., ancient peoples fermented cocoa beans to make alcohol. In fact, the sweet properties of cacao fruits were not known upon discovery. Ancient civilizations defaulted to fermenting it because they liked alcohol so much. It wasn’t until much later that they discovered how delicious it was when turned into what we know as chocolate today.
- There are multiple events that celebrate chocolate every year! July 7th is known as Chocolate Day, which is a reference to the day that chocolate was first brought to Europe in 1550. There’s also National Milk Chocolate Day on July 28th, International Chocolate Day on September 13th and National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day on November 7th.
- Are you wondering about the composition of different chocolates? Dark chocolate has chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, lecithin, sugar and vanilla. Milk chocolate contains everything that dark chocolate contains, with the addition of milk fats and milk solids. White chocolate has everything milk chocolate does, except for chocolate liquor.
- To continue off of chocolate composition, the Food and Drug Administration also acknowledges that there are different grades of chocolate. These include unsweetened or brute chocolate, which can actually be 99% composed of chocolate liquor. This chocolate can be divided into even more categories. For instance, there exists bittersweet, semisweet and even dark milk chocolate! Read below for more chocolate candy wall art facts.
Delectable & Delicious
- As previously stated, many ancient civilizations used consumed chocolate. Many did not realize that the cocoa bean needed to be fermented and refined before eating, so it took time before people used it to its fullest extent. One of the first actual chocolate treats that bears resemblance to a modern food is hot chocolate! Aztecs created a very bitter tasting hot chocolate that they used for ceremonial events like weddings.
- Chocolate is prepared in a variety of ways. One of the most popular ways to prepare chocolate is by melting it. Did you know that chocolate is the only edible substance with a melting point of 93 degrees Fahrenheit? Have you ever wondered why, when holding chocolate, it starts to melt almost instantly after touching your hand? It’s melting temperature is close to your natural body temperature.
- Studies have shown the chocolate is closely linked to improving memory. A study conducted in an American university has shown that chocolate and memory are closely correlated. In this experiment, everyone studied was given a beverage that contained a high dose of cocoa flavanols, a naturally occurring antioxidant in chocolate. Those studied drank this beverage every day for three months while having their memories tested throughout this time period. Brain scans found that those who drank the chocolate drink had a 25% better mental performance than those who did not drink.
- Speaking of ancient civilizations, they used chocolate for purposes other than eating. When cacao beans were first discovered in Aztecs and Mayans, they were frequently ground and mixed with hot water to create hot chocolate. Due to the extreme popularity of this drink, cacao beans were used as a form of current! That’s right, chocolate used to be money! During those times, a basket of these bean was used as a single trade unit in a market.
- To wrap things up (no pun intended), have you ever wondered about the origins of chocolate in the supermarket? Are you interested in knowing where chocolate was first sold as an actual commercial product? The very first bar of chocolate was sold in a British market named Fry and Sons in 1847. The shop combined cocoa butter, chocolate liquor and sugar to form their candy bar? Did you like these chocolate candy wall art facts?
Conclusion
Now that you know so much about chocolate, what do you think of it? Is chocolate still your favorite dessert? How do you like yours? As hot chocolate? As the filling in a chocolate pie? Maybe you enjoyed big, hearty bowls of chocolate ice cream? Perhaps you’re simple, and just like a plain candy bar? Whatever you enjoy, we hope you learned something from reading this blog? Thanks for reading these chocolate candy wall art facts!