Today is the world chocolate day and we can’t do anything else but celebrate it here at Lavolio!
What is it?
It’s an annual celebration of chocolate, occurring globally on July 7, which some suggest to be the anniversary of the introduction of chocolate to Europe in 1550.
The observance of World Chocolate Day dates back to 2009.
World Chocolate Day allows chocolate lovers around the world to indulge in their favorite treat without any guilt.
Where does chocolate come from?
Chocolate comes from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia and grows in Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America.
The history of chocolate dates back to around 2,500 years ago. The earliest known documentation of the use of cocoa beans dates back to 1100 BC. The Aztecs worshiped liquid chocolate that they believed the god of wisdom, Quetzalcoatl, granted it to them.
Once chocolate took a turn and became sweet, in Europe in the 16th century, it caught the attention of the masses and became the favourite delicacy of many families.
July 30, 1502 is commonly considered the date of the discovery of cocoa, being the day on which for the first time Columbus received a bean of the American fruit in exchange for some precious goods.
The first factory dates back to 1765 in the US, while the invention of milk chocolate from Switzerland arrived in the 19th century.
How can they turn the cocoa beans into chocolate?
Since the cocoa tree seeds have a very intense and bitter flavour, they must be fermented to develop it.
Once fermented, processors dry, clean and roast the beans. After roasting, the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs.
The cacao nibs are then ground into cocoa mass, which is pure chocolate in rough form. The cocoa mass is usually liquefied, then molded with or without other ingredients. At this point in the process, it is called chocolate liquor.
Healthy benefits
Thanks to the substances contained in cocoa, dark chocolate has beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system, heart, arteries and mood; it also has aphrodisiac and stimulating properties and contains antioxidants that reduce the effects of oxidative stress. To benefit from the properties of dark chocolate, you should preferably consume a product that contains at least 70% cocoa mass.
Different chocolate for different personalities
What would the type of chocolate we choose say? Have you ever noticed that each of us prefers a certain flavour and never another? Well, know that each choice seems to reveal characteristic traits of one's personality.
Those who choose dark chocolate are very active and concrete in everything they do. Endowed with great creativity, dark chocolate lovers know how to instil joy because they know how to look to tomorrow with optimism.
Lovers of milk chocolate love to live in the past and in memories, regretting, at times, the world of youth and childhood. Therefore, the search for more protected and safer situations can sometimes make them distant from the reality that surrounds them.
If you prefer white chocolate, you may be a person attentive to the choices to be made but who, after having meditated for a long time, knows how to push forward ideas with strength.
If chocolate for you is only the extra-dark one, you could be a person who tends to be very decisive and enterprising. Strong flavour for strong personalities.
Those who love every type of chocolate are usually a person capable of adapting to any situation, managing to juggle even in situations out of the ordinary, always ready to help and actively collaborate with others.
And you? What chocolate are you?
