8 Facts About Chocolate

There is no doubt that chocolate is loved the world over as can be seen by the vast quantities of it that is consumed on a yearly basis. There is just something about it that appeals to us no matter if it is as a drink, in a bar or in a cake, but to be perfectly honest most people know next to nothing about the actual product apart from the fact that they love the taste of it. What follows are eight facts about this delicious item that may just provide you with some fun details that you have never heard about before.

• Save

1. It is believed that chocolate is approximately 2500 years old and has its origins in Central America, but it did not really gain in popularity until the 16th century due to Europeans exploring the area and taking it back home with them. The original name was cacao and we call it cocoa apparently due to a spelling mistake centuries ago.

2. Estimates are that 66% of the cacao we use is produced in countries in Africa and indeed it is stated that just 15 countries are responsible for producing an amazing 98% of the cocoa in the entire world.

3. Chocolate has been used to help ease depression as it has been shown to help the brain to increase the amount of endorphins and serotonin that it produces, which means it is actually a very mild anti-depressant.

4. People in the United States of America are believed to consume around half of the chocolate that is produced in the world on a yearly basis all by themselves showing they really do have a sweet tooth.

5. The biggest Easter egg ever produced was made in Melbourne, Australia and it weighed an amazing 4484lbs and it stood ten feet tall. It is not known how many people then managed to have a piece of it, but you can be sure that it was a lot.

6. One single cocoa pod will contain an average of 42 beans, but in order to make just a single pound of chocolate you will need up to 270 cocoa beans depending on the type you want to make and how rich you want it to be.

7. Chocolate has been shown to be high in fat and you would initially feel that this would be bad for you, but studies have shown that somehow it does not actually raise cholesterol levels meaning it is not as bad for your heart as you may have thought.

8. The chocolate trading market regularly trades over seven million tonnes of chocolate in a single year and this is no surprise when you consider that there are over seven billion chocolate chips consumed each year and this does not then take into account all of the other items that are made using it.

So those are just eight chocolate facts that you will have probably never heard about before, but there could have easily been eighty facts instead of just eight. Hopefully they have just given you something different to think about the next time you are eating some or perhaps they have intrigued you enough to check out some other facts in which case happy hunting online.

This article was written by Genevie from Chocolate by Genevie, a chocolate delivery service in the UK supplying luxury gourmet chocolates.