Chocolate: Everything You Want to Know

It’s no coincidence that chocolate candies are presented as gifts to women on Valentine’s Day. For most women, chocolate is their one true (and only) weakness, where it’s been proven to affect a woman differently than it does for a man. It’s hard to describe how it melts in your mouth with the right amount of creaminess and sweet goodness. Let’s talk about chocolate: everything you want to know. In case you missed my post How To Make The Very Best Chocolate Cake Ever

Today is Election Day, November 5, 2024. I need chocolate; need I say more? Stay safe, my friends!

Chocolate: Everything You Want to Know 

Chocolate has over 4,000 years of history, but it’s only been in the last 150 years that it’s been sweetened to just how you enjoy it today. Eating chocolate may not be as bad for you as you think. Here’s more on chocolate and everything you need to know about it.  

Basic Info

Chocolate is made from cacao beans from the theobroma cacao tree. The beans themselves are extremely bitter at first, but then they are fermented, roasted, and melted along with cocoa butter into a paste, liquid, or block while using several sweetening ingredients. It’s one of the most popular foods in the world, used in baked goods, candies, drinks, and even alcoholic drinks.  

Fun Facts

Do you have any idea why M&Ms were originally created? They were first introduced to soldiers in 1941 during WWII so that soldiers could still enjoy chocolate without worrying about it melting. Today, selling chocolate is a huge business, with over $83 billion in revenue each year.  

Americans today consume around 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate every single year.  

Did you know that if you placed chocolate next to a small cube of cheese, a mouse would choose the chocolate every time? Mice love sweets just as much as we do. 

There is a compound in chocolate called theobromine, which is poisonous to dogs and can be deadly for certain people as well. Fortunately, for it to be fatal for humans, you’d have to scarf down roughly 22 lbs of chocolate in one sitting. Here is a fun recipe to make with family: Easy To Make Chocolate Truffles  

A Little Chocolate History

Anthropologists believe that the ancient Mesoamericans of Mexico were the first to grow and cultivate cacao trees, dating back as early as 1900 B.C. They didn’t eat chocolate but drank it instead, spiced it up with chili, honey, vanilla, and water. 

Several centuries later, the Maya and Aztec civilizations also enjoyed chocolate and even worshipped the god of cacao. They coveted the cocoa bean so much that it was often used as a type of currency.  

Later, in the 1500s, when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Americas, they returned home, not with gold, but with chocolate. When chocolate first made its way into Europe, it didn’t arrive as a food but as a bitter drink. It was rather expensive, too, and only the wealthy and aristocrats could enjoy it. 

The first chocolate bar was created in 1847 by Joseph Fry. Its texture was creamier, and it was much sweeter and had a superior taste. Companies that are still around today, like Mars, Cadbury, and Hershey’s, took off during the “chocolate boom” of the late 1800s and early 1900s.   

Types of Chocolate

There are four different types of chocolate, and everyone is sure to have a favorite. Here’s a closer look at them and what you can expect.  

Milk Chocolate (Sweet) 

Milk chocolate is the most sought-after type of chocolate on the market today. Its smooth and rather sweet flavor is a combination of milk, sugar, and cocoa. 

Dark Chocolate

You can expect more dried and ground cocoa with dark chocolate. It’s much more bitter due to less sugar, but it’s good chocolate to bake with. It is also the healthiest of all the chocolates and brings several health benefits. Semi-sweet chocolate is made by adding a little extra sugar to dark chocolate. 

White Chocolate

White chocolate technically isn’t even chocolate at all because it does not use cocoa beans but has contents that come from cocoa butter. It’s white and creamy, with a milder sweet flavor. 

Ruby Chocolate

Until very recently, there were only three types of chocolate. Now we have one more. Ruby chocolate is the newest type of chocolate, introduced back in 2017. It is white chocolate that’s less processed, with a tiny hint of citric acid. It’s considered to be slightly sweet and yet a bit sour in flavor. 

Nutrition Facts of Chocolate 

This may shock you, but chocolate (incredibly dark chocolate) can be nutritious for you. It contains substantial amounts of iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, calcium, and decent amounts of potassium, zinc, phosphorus, and selenium. Several antioxidants in chocolate can prove helpful to you as well.   

Health Benefits of Chocolate

Yes, you read that right. Chocolate is not only good for you but is something that you should eat. Research has shown several health benefits in eating chocolate when consumed moderately. 

If you want to enjoy the most of those benefits, I’d encourage you to eat dark chocolate. It’s certainly more bitter, but it’s the healthiest form of chocolate. Here are some of the benefits of eating dark chocolate. 

Prevents Cancer and Disease 

Dark chocolate has certain antioxidant properties (epicatechin and quercetin) that help fight free radicals that are trying to cause havoc to the cells in our bodies. Thus, eating dark chocolate may help to prevent certain types of cancers. My Favorite Dark Chocolate

It also helps decrease inflammation and fight off certain diseases, like Alzheimer’s and heart disease. Dark chocolate is especially good for your heart, but not only that, but it also reduces the chances of you having a stroke.   

Reduces Blood Pressure

The nitric oxide present in chocolate helps to widen blood vessels, which in turn improves blood flow and lowers blood pressure. 

Improves Blood Sugar Levels 

Eating chocolate may not sound like the correct way to lower your blood sugar levels and prevent diabetes, but studies have shown that it does just that. Dark chocolate contains flavonoids that help reduce oxidative stress, which is the leading cause of insulin resistance. Just be sure that you enjoy it in moderation.  

Brain Benefits Too

Eating chocolate can stimulate the neurons firing in our brains. This helps us with memory and cognition and improves our moods, too. (That explains why we’re happier after eating chocolate.) 

Skin Benefits 

Chocolate has several skin benefits, too. Certain minerals, such as calcium and manganese, help to keep your skin looking younger and healthier. They also help to renew and repair skin cells, while the antioxidants in chocolate help to protect your skin against harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. 

Improves Sexual Drive

Yes, eating chocolate has also been proven to help improve your sex drive, as well as your sexual pleasure. We’re told that’s why the Aztec chief Montezuma drank so much of the chocolate drink.

Final Word

As strange as it may seem, chocolate is both nutritious and delicious. Now, you don’t have to feel so guilty about enjoying a bite of it now and then. What are some of your favorite chocolate recipes and chocolate brands that you can’t seem to stay away from?  What do you think about Chocolate: Everything you want to know? It won’t hurt to stock some chocolate, right? My favorite is dark chocolate! May God bless this world, Linda

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