Chocolate factoids

  • The botanical name for the chocolate tree is Theobramba Cacao – which means ‘Food of the Gods’.

  • Cacao trees can only grow in tropical climates, either 20 degrees north or south of the equator with a year-round temperature of 21-25ºC.

  • The word ‘chocolate’ was originally derived from the Aztec word ‘xocolatl’ which means bitter water.

  • It takes 400 cocoa beans to make one pound of chocolate.

  • Chocolate is the only food substance that melts at body temperature – which is why it melts immediately in your mouth.
     
  • English company JS Fry and Sons made the very first chocolate bar in 1826.

  • Chocolate connoisseurs will only taste bars of pure chocolate, dismissing chocolates filled with cream or alcohol as ‘confectionary’.

  • Chloé Doutre-Roussel – chocolate buyer at high-class store Fortnum & Mason – prefers to taste chocolate at 6.00 a.m. in the morning when her taste buds are ‘inquisitive, intelligent and pure’.  She eats over a pound/450g of chocolate every day.  And she’s a size eight!

  • Single-estate or single-origin chocolate means that the cocoa beans used to make the bar are from a particular region.

  • Single plantation bars come from one particular plantation, usually renowned for the quality of its cocoa beans.

  • The best cocoa beans come from the Criollo tree – the most fragrant and fragile of cocoa trees.

  • Madagascar produces less than half a percent of the world’s cocoa beans but they’re among the finest quality.

  • There are three main types of cocoa tree:
    • Forastero – the most common and produces the most cocoa beans, but there are the poorest quality.
    • Criollo – a fragile tree with a small yield that produces the best-flavoured beans
    • Trinitario – a cross between Criollo and Forastero.  A robust tree with fairly good beans and a healthy yield.

  • Three million tons of cocoa beans are processed each year worldwide.

  • The fruits of the cocoa tree are very colourful ranging from bright red to pale yellow.
     
  • In 1900 Queen Victoria sent specially made chocolate bars to the soldiers fighting in the Boer War as a New Year’s greeting.

  • Chocolate was used by the Aztecs as a currency just like gold.

  • From 1650 – 1860 chocolate was recommended as a health aid by doctors.
  • Spanish women in St Cristobal de las Casas were banned from drinking hot chocolate during high mass.  The bishop who banned the practice was later murdered by a cup of hot chocolate laced with poison.