So the question is, who doesn’t love chocolate?
The first ever chocolate bar was invented in 1847 by Joseph Fry, so you can say chocolate has been around for a very long time, the soldiers during the Revolutionary War were sometimes paid in chocolate! There’s no denying us Brits love our chocolate, we spend more on chocolate than any country in Europe, consuming £3.5 billion worth of chocolate last year! So what is it about chocolate we all love? A part from chocolate been so delicious, it actually gives you a more intense mental high and gets your heart pounding more than kissing does.
To celebrate Chocolate Week (12th – 18th October) we have searched high and low to find the most interesting facts about chocolate that you probably don’t have a clue about!
1) Although we tend to think of chocolate as a solid today, for 90% of its history it was consumed in liquid form. This is due to the fact that some of the earliest European cocoa-makers were apothecaries seeking medicinal uses of the plant. Cacao seeds contain significant amounts of naturally occurring flavonoids which are connected with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
2) There is a rare fourth kind of chocolate in addition to the classic milk, dark, and white varieties: blond chocolate. Us chocolate lovers have the possibility to try something new, so get tasting that blond chocolate!
3) The largest chocolate bar ever weighed just over 12,770 pounds and was created by Thornton’s, who would like to take this home?
4) Chocolate milk is an effective post-workout recovery drink. “Chocolate milk provides carbohydrate replenishment to your muscles — something they can metabolize,” said Jason Karp. So next time you hit the gym, pack your chocolate milk.
5) White Chocolate technically isn’t chocolate, it actually doesn’t contain any chocolate. Its main ingredient is coco butter, a pale yellow vegetable fat that comes from a coco bean but isn’t chocolate.
If you love chocolate as much as we do, then why don’t you get your hands on one of chocolate hampers? Which will you choose to celebrate Chocolate Week?
