Bittersweet Chocolate Day – January 10th

June 10th is deemed as Bittersweet Chocolate Day.

We love our chocolates. We love it so much, that Americans consume over 3.1 billions pounds of chocolates per year. On average, each of us will consume over 10,000 chocolate bars in our lifetime!

You will be well served to know some interesting facts and trivia about chocolate, in order to “Wow” our family and friends with your chocolatey knowledge.

Chocolate Trivia:

• Researchers have found no link between acne and chocolate.
• While 75% of chocolate purchases are made by women all year long, during the days before Valentine’s Day and on Valentine’s Day 75% of the chocolate purchases are made by men.
• Chocolate comes from the Cacao or cocoa bean, grown on a Cacao tree. That’s right, it is from a plant, therefore, it’s a vegetable.
• The average person will consume 10,000 chocolate bars in a lifetime.
• The Aztecs once used cacao beans for currency.
  Columbus brought Cacao beans back to Spain in 1520. It quickly spread across Europe.
• The first chocolate chip cookie was invented in 1937 by Ruth Wakefield who ran the “Toll House Inn.”
• Approximately 40% of almonds produced in the world are made for chocolate products.
• Approximately 70% of the world’s cacao is grown in Africa.
• The Mars company invented M&M’s for soldiers during World War II.
• Research suggests that dark chocolate boosts memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving skills by increasing blood flow to the brain. This makes chocoholics very smart people, right?
• In 1942, the first chocolate bar was made by English chocolate company Cadbury.
• The Baby Ruth bar was created in 1920 by the Curtiss Candy Company. It was named after the famous baseball player, George “Babe” Herman Ruth.
  

  The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after the baseball player and NOT the other way around.

• Cacao originated in Central and South America more than 4,000 years ago.
• The Cacao tree can live for over 200 years. But, it only produces for 25 years.
• It takes approximately 400 cacao beans to make one pound of chocolate.
• 70% of the world’s production of cacao beans comes from West Africa.
• In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the street lights on “Chocolate Avenue” are in the shape of Hershey Kisses. Hershey’s produces over 70 million chocolate Kisses every day.
• A chocolate bar is actually low in cholesterol. A 1.65 oz. bar contains only 12 mg.

• The Catholic Church once associated chocolate with heretical behavior, including blasphemy, extortion, witchcraft, and seduction.
• Dark chocolate has been scientifically shown to be beneficial to human health. Milk chocolate, white chocolate, and other varieties are not.
• Women tend to prefer white chocolate, while men generally prefer bittersweet or dark chocolate. Like ’em both? That’s perfectly fine.
• One chocolate chip can give a person enough energy to walk 150 feet. Need the energy to walk a mile? Consume just 35 chips.
• American and Russian space flights have always included chocolate.
• A 1.5 oz. milk chocolate bar has only 220 calories, less that a 1.75 oz. serving of potato chips at 230 calories.
• Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate, almost half of the total world’s production.
• Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is believed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love.
• Hawaii is the only US state that grows cacao beans.

The street lights in Hershey, Penn. gives people a “kiss” of light.