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| Chocolate Trivia, Continued |
| On April 4, 1828, Coenraad Johannes Van Houten took out a patent for his newly invented cocoa press, which extracted the cocoa butter from the chocolate, leaving behind the powdered cocoa. The fruits of the cocao tree, which take the form of pods, are very colorful ranging from bright red to lemon yellow. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the street lights along Chocolate Avenue are in the shape of Hershey kisses. A 1.5 oz milk chocolate bar has only 220 calories. A 1.75 oz serving of potato chips has 230 calories. Chocolate in a blue wrapper won't sell in Shanghai or Hong Kong because the Chinese associate blue with death. Casanova, fond of chocolate's "divine properties" considered it an elixer of love. Chocolate was thought to be an aphrodisiac. In the 17th century the Roman church tried to ban chocolate to keep lustful passions from being inflamed. The best way to get a pound of chocolate home in a hot car is to eat it in the parking lot. Quality chocolate contains manganese, calcium, potassium, sodium, iron, which are all vital minerals. It also contains vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D, and E. In a recent poll, 52% of American men and women voted for chocolate as their favorite flavor desserts and sweet snacks. 71% of American chocolate eaters prefer milk chocolate. The Midwest and the Northeast consume more candy per region than the South, Southwest, West or Mid-Atlantic states. Chocolate contains the highest concentration in any food of Phenylethylamine, the chemical produced in the brain when a person is in love. Chocolate has long been known to provide quick energy booosts. Back in the Aztec Empire, Montezuma (C. 1480-1520) spoke of this property when he called chocolate "The divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food." The first cocoa trees grew wild in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins over 4,000 years ago. |
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