Eden Project

10 facts about chocolate from the Eden Project

In the run-up to our chocolate festival, Chocolate Jungle, in February half-term (11–19 February 2012) we’d like to share some facts with you about the fascinating and surprising story of this tasty treat.

1. The Maya people of ancient Mexico used cocoa beans as money: 10 for a rabbit, 100 for a slave.
2. The botanical name of cocoa is Theobroma cacao, meaning ‘food of the gods’!
3. When the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez arrived in Mexico in 1519, he and his men were hailed as gods and given all the things the Aztecs loved – including chocolate.
4. In 1579, after taking a Spanish ship loaded with cocoa beans, English buccaneers set it on fire thinking the beans were sheep dung.
5. In 1587, when the British captured a Spanish vessel loaded with cocoa beans, the cargo was destroyed as useless.
6. Cocoa is really called ‘cacao’, but the Victorians couldn’t pronounce it so they renamed it!
7. Chocolate was regarded as a drink until the 19th century. The first advert for eating chocolate appeared in Butler’s ‘medicine chest dictionary’ in 1826. Fry’s chocolate lozenges were described as ‘a pleasant and nutritious substitute for food in travelling or when unusual fasting is caused by irregular periods of eating’.
8. Many of the people who grow cocoa have never tasted chocolate.
9. Individuals in the UK, on average, consume around 10kg of chocolate every year.
10. Cocoa butter is a useful ingredient in moisturisers and face creams because it melts at skin temperature.

More facts about chocolate

Find out more by flicking through our potted, illustrated history of chocolate.

Comments:

No comments

Categories:

Events, Food

Tags:

children, Chocolate, Chocolate Jungle