Delicious Chocolate Facts To Eat Up

With Valentine’s Day coming up, we thought we would brush up on your chocolate knowledge.

1. Chocolate gets celebrated multiple times a year.
July 7 is also known as Chocolate Day (chocolate was allegedly first brought to Europe on July 7, 1550). On the other hand, we have National Milk Chocolate Day on July 28, International Chocolate Day on September 13, and how can we forget? National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day on November 7.

2. Chocolate is also a vegetable (kind of).
Both dark and milk chocolate come from the cacao bean, which grows on the cacao tree, an evergreen from the Malvaceae family. Therefore, this makes the most vital part of the goodie a vegetable.

3. The cacao bean is native to Mexico, Central and South America.
People living in these areas first began cultivating the cacao bean as far back as 1250 BCE (maybe even earlier!).

4. Hot chocolate was the first chocolaty treat invented.
It is believed that the Maya culture was the first to make this now world-wide popular drink. Of course, this drink was much less sweet. It was only consumed by the elite.

5. Once upon a time, cacao was used as currency.
The cacao bean was highly valued in some ancient civilizations. So much so that they at some point, it was utilized to exchange goods.

Fun fact: Aside from chocolates that you can eat, Treehut have chocolate watches that you can wear and engrave!