Chocolate "Chips" @ The ShoppingPlace

Aztec Indian legend held that cacao seeds had been brought from Paradise and that wisdom and power came from eating the fruit of the cacao tree.

Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cacao tree and used as a flavoring and as an ingredient of beverages and various kinds of confectionery.

In 1519, Emperor Montezuma, who reportedly drank 50 or more portions daily, served chocolatl to his Spanish guests in great golden goblets.

Chocolate is known as the "food of the gods", as it should be. It is made from the beans of the Theobroma Cacao tree. In 1753 Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus, named the cacao tree Theobroma cacao. The Greek word thiobroma interprets as "food of the gods".

The word "chocolate" was originally derived from the Aztec word xocolatl which means bitter water.

Eating chocolate was introduced in 1674 in the form of rolls and cakes, served in the various chocolate emporiums.

Cadbury Brothers displayed eating chocolate in 1849 at an exhibition in Bingley Hall at Birmingham, England.

When the Spanish Princess Maria Theresa was betrothed to Louis XIV of France in 1615, she gave her fiancé an engagement gift of chocolate, packaged in an elegantly ornate chest.

In 1730, the price of chocolate was $3.00 (U.S. dollars) or more per pound, well out of reach of the masses.

Prince Albert's Exposition in 1851 in London was the first time citizens of the United States were introduced to bonbons, chocolate creams, hard candies (called "boiled sweets"), and caramels.

It takes approximately 400 cocoa beans to make 1 pound of chocolate.

Chocolate contains a protein that inhibits bacterial growth on teeth, and since it melts at body temperature and melts off of teeth, the sugar in chocolate does not cling to teeth.

Chocolate makes us happy when we eat it. It contains the highest concentration in any food of phenylethylamine, which is the chemical produced in the brain when a person is in love.

Chocolate is preferred by 80% of the world's population.

In 1879 Rodolphe Lindt of Berne, Switzerland, invented "conching", a means of heating and rolling chocolate to refine it. After chocolate has been conched for 72 hours and has more cocoa butter added to it, chocolate becomes "fondant".

Annual world consumption of cocoa beans averages approximately 600,000 tons.

When cocoa powder is combined with cocoa butter and sugar, the "real" dark chocolate is formed. Dark chocolate can be either sweet or bitter-sweet depending on how much sugar is added.

In 1913, Jules Sechaud of Montreux, Switzerland introduced the process for filling chocolates.

Milk chocolate is made when cocoa powder is combined with cocoa butter, sugar, and milk. The addition of milk to this combination gives it a brownish color. Each chocolate manufacturer has secret ways in which they combine the substances, thus milk chocolate can vary in color and flavor.

Chocolate purists argue that white chocolate is not really chocolate.

Opinion 1: The fact that white chocolate is made by combining cocoa butter, sugar, and milk powder. Since cocoa butter is derived from the cocoa bean, it is logical that white chocolate is indeed chocolate.

Opinion 2: White chocolate is not true chocolate; it contains no chocolate liquor and, very little chocolate flavor.

While it can hardly be classified as health food, neither should chocolate be completely banned from a healthy diet. Cocoa (powdered, roasted cacao beans from which a portion of the fat has been removed) is used in many chocolate desserts and is only 15% fat. Milk chocolate has 30% fat and bittersweet chocolate has 35%.

The Chocolate Manufacturers Association of the United States of America (CMA) was organized in 1923.

The New York Cocoa Exchange, located at the World Trade Center, was begun October 1, 1925, so that buyers and sellers could get together for transactions.

Cocoa butter is a triglyceride which begins to soften at 75 degrees Farenheit, and melts at 97 degrees Farenheit. It is a highly saturated fat which consists principally of the fatty acid stearic acid, which is found in higher concentration in chocolate than in any other food.

Health-conscious chocophiles owe a debt of gratitude to medical researcher Scott M. Grundy, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas, who found that stearic acid, the principal fat in chocolate, does not raise LDL cholesterol levels.

Chocolate contains only a small amount of caffeine. One ounce of milk chocolate usually contains 5 mg of caffeine. One ounce of semi-sweet chocolate usually has 5-10 mg of caffeine, and a 6 ounce cup of cocoa usually has 10 mg. For comparison, a 6 ounce cup of coffee contains 100-150 mg of caffeine.

The U.S. Army D-rations include three 4 ounce chocolate bars. Chocolate has even been taken into space as part of the diet of U.S. astronauts.

In the early 1990's, annual U.S. production of chocolate and related confections exceeded 1.2 million metric tons. Annual consumption in the U.S. is about 11.3 pounds per person. In Switzerland, it is more: 21 pounds of chocolate per person, per year.