• Long ago, chocolate was mostly a drink, not a candy bar. Ancient people in Mesoamerica drank chocolate rather than ate it.
• Chocolate begins inside colorful fruits called cacao pods that grow on trees in tropical forests.
• The first people interested in cacao may have enjoyed the sweet fruit pulp around the beans before using the beans to make chocolate drinks.
• Cocoa beans were once used as money in parts of Mesoamerica, including the Aztec Empire. Imagine buying lunch with chocolate money.
• Since cacao beans were money, some people made fake cocoa beans from clay to trick others. Counterfeit chocolate money existed centuries before counterfeit banknotes.
• The scientific name of the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao, which means “food of the gods.”
• Emergency chocolate made for United States soldiers during World War II was designed to taste only a little better than a boiled potato so soldiers would save it for emergencies.
• Chocolate naturally contains caffeine and theobromine, two ingredients that can help people feel more awake and alert.
• The first people interested in cacao may have enjoyed the sweet fruit pulp around the beans before using the beans to make chocolate drinks.
• For thousands of years, chocolate was mostly dark and bitter. Milk chocolate only became popular much later.
• White chocolate is different from dark and milk chocolate because it does not contain the cocoa solids that give chocolate its brown color.
• It takes many cocoa beans to make chocolate. One kilogram of chocolate may need about 300 to 600 cocoa beans.
• During World War II, chocolate bars were included in soldiers’ emergency rations because they were small, strong, and packed with energy.
• Astronauts have eaten chocolate in space. Chocolate has traveled beyond Earth and into orbit.
• Some giant chocolate bars have weighed as much as a small car or even more.
• Chocolate is safe for people, but dogs and cats should never eat it because it can make them very sick.
• Chocolate melts at around body temperature. That is one reason it melts so smoothly in your mouth.
• Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate all come from the same cacao plant but are made in different ways.
• The smell of chocolate may help some people feel happier or more relaxed.
• Believe it or not, in 2018, more than a ton of melted chocolate spilled onto a street in Germany and hardened on the road, creating what looked like a real chocolate street.
In music, a bar holds notes. In chocolate, a bar holds sweetness. The world has room for both kinds.
⌨ ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ
