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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.
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