Chocolate Facts
Chocolate Facts – chocolate is more than just a sweet treat, it’s a passion for many who enjoy the wonderful, intoxicating flavor of chocolate. And the variations, history, and usage of chocolate are almost as interesting as the flavor. Here are some interesting Chocolate facts that will put a little spark in your conversation about this wonderful dessert treat.
Chocolate facts – Chocolate Grows On Trees: Unlike money, chocolate literally does grow on trees. A small tropical tree known as the “Therobroma Cacao” or more simply, the “Cacao” is native to Central and South America, but most of the cacao trees can be found in Africa. The word “Cacao” is Greek for “Food of the Gods”, which seems appropriate enough. These trees produce the pods or seeds from which chocolate is produced.
More Chocolate facts about their development are the football shaped pods harvested twice a year, the core seeds or “beans” as they are sometimes called are fermented in an earthen pit or wooden bin and covered in banana leaves. The heat of the fermentation process changes the “beans” into a more familiar chocolaty form, this process may take from a few days to a week or more. Afterwards, they are left to dry out in the sun and then are ready to be processed into chocolate.
Chocolate facts - The first civilization that used chocolate were the Mayans starting over 1,500 years ago. The cacao beans were used as currency to buy many different things, a tradition that continued in Central America up until the 19th century. From religious rituals to marriage ceremonies, chocolate was an important part of Mayan life, they even had a chocolate “god”, talk about your interesting chocolate facts.
But the consumption of chocolate was in its liquid form. In addition, while the process they used is not very different than what is done today, they kept the chocolate in its pasty, liquid form and mixed it with hot water and other ingredient such as vanilla, allspice, honey, flowers and even chili. The frothy blend settled into a liquid form and Mayans drank it before it could harden. A version of this process, where chocolate was mixed with corn and water to make a drink is still popular in Latin America today.
Chocolate facts – chocolate is Good for You: This may be one of the the best kept or perhaps worst kept of the Chocolate facts. While the normal, sugar filled chocolates that are mass produced are certainly not a part of a healthy diet, though eating a little wont’ do you any real harm, chocolate with a high content of cocoa is actually good for you. Cocoa is filled with antioxidants, which absorb the “free radicals” in your body that cause premature aging as well as other unhealthy conditions.
To supplement a healthy diet, you will need to find chocolate with a high cocoa content, which is usually found in dark chocolate. And while there is fat, sugar and caffeine in chocolate, the true Chocolate facts are that all three of those “unhealthy” elements are in few quantities in the dark chocolate versions, making them okay to eat as long as you don’t overindulge.
Chocolate facts – Chocolate is the leader in all sweet snacks. The biggest of all Chocolate facts is that chocolate does taste VERY YUMMY
