5 Fun Facts About Chocolate
Blog post by Lindsay Mustard, Holistic Nutritionist (@lindsaymustard)
Like we need another reason to eat chocolate, besides the fact that it tastes like sublime and makes our mood improve instantaneously… But just in case you need some cold, chocolatey evidence to support your chocolate consumption when someone gawks at your intake. In today’s blog post we’re sharing five fun chocolatey facts that are very likely lead you to the store to restock on your supply and attempt to infuse chocolate into every meal that you make. Ready, set, EAT!
Chocolatey Fun Fact #1: Health & Mood Superpowers
Chocolate has been around for thousands of years. Cocoa is the star ingredient that contributes plant chemicals called flavanols, which help to protect our heart, improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. Dark chocolate is also packed with antioxidants and polyphenols - this is what separates it from milk chocolate! The free radical fighting abilities of dark chocolate, aids in preventing our bodies from inflammation, chronic disease and cellular damage.
When it's not protecting our heart and cells, dark chocolate is working to boost our brain power! It is a cognitive enhancing food that helps to increase blood flow to the brain. Combine its brain boosting abilities with its mood enhancing abilities and you’ll be on a whole new level of focus at work or school! Dark chocolate also contains theobromine, a sister chemical to caffeine that when consumed causes our blood pressure to drop and provides us an energy boost. The deep, dark, chocolatey goodness also contains a mood-boosting chemical called phenethylamine, which is metabolized by our bodies into serotonin. Serotonin is a key hormone that stabilizes our mood, feelings of happiness and our well-being.
In this pic: Zazubean’s Lunatic with Mint, Cocoa Nibs & Maca.
Chocolatey Fun Fact #2: Chocolate Wasn’t Always Solid & Sweet
It’s hard to imagine chocolate in any other state than bar form and tasting melting in your mouth leaving a sweet, rich aftertaste. Well, you might be surprised to hear that chocolate wasn’t always in solid form, nor was it sweet - it was actually liquid and quite bitter! It wasn’t until 1847 that chocolate was a delicacy enjoyed in a bitter, liquid fashion. The British chocolate company, Fry and Sons, were the pioneers who introduced the world to the concept of eating hard chocolate through the combination of cocoa butter, sugar and chocolate liquor. Up until then, chocolate was consumed in the state of a fermented beverages dating back to as early as 450 BC.
The Mexica believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the God of Wisdom, and the seeds once had so much value that they were used as a form of currency. Could you imagine - chocolate as a form of money?! Good thing it wasn’t sweet enough to eat as we’d eat through all of our savings! Fast forward to 1875, a Swiss chocolatier and entrepreneur named Daniel Peter, transformed the world of chocolate bringing the first ever, milk chocolate bar to the world.
Chocolatey Fun Fact #3: The Best Dessert Mistake
You know your favourite chocolate chip cookie? The one that is filled with thick chunks of delicious, rich and creamy chocolate? Brace yourself for this one. The world famous chocolate chip cookie was actually made by mistake! In 1938, a woman named Ruth Wakefield was attempting to make a batch of Butter Drop Do Cookies at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. She thought that adding chocolate chunks to her cookie batter would result in chocolate cookies. The result? The world’s favourite cookie was invented! She eventually sold the recipe to Nestle Toll House in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate - now that is a sweet deal.
In this pic: Zazubean’s Slinky Almond Crunch with Oat Milk, Hazelnuts & Roasted Almonds.
Chocolatey Fun Fact #4: Flavour Compounds
If you thought red wine had a lot of flavour compounds with over 200, chocolate has three times that! Chocolate contains over 600 flavor compounds, which give off its distinct aroma, according to the American Chemical Society. The main flavor compounds in chocolate are polyphenols, present in raw cocoa bean and going through various forms during production, and pyrazines formed during production, followed by aldehydes, ketones, and esters. And here some of us thought there was only milk, dark and white chocolate on the market. The world of chocolate is so much more complex than we thought!
Chocolatey Fun Fact #5: Chocolate Takes Patience
Try to keep your mouth close when you read this one, our jaws dropped the first time we heard this. Did you know that it takes roughly 400 cocoa beans to produce one pound of chocolate? That, and each Theobroma Cacao Tree only produces approximately 2,500 beans each season! Those two facts alone are shocking, but the farmers also have to wait approximately 4-5 years before the Theobroma Cacao Tree is mature enough to yield the fruit. Talk about patiently waiting to enjoy the fruits of your labour!
There you have it, five jaw dropping, delicious and shocking facts about chocolate that you can share with your friends the next time you tuck into your favourite chocolate bar to share. Now, the only thing you have to ask yourself is, “what Zazubean chocolate bar am I going to eat first?”