What is chocolate?

• Chocolate has a long long history. Chocolate itself is derived from the seeds of a fleshy pod, which is the fruit of the Cacao tree. The tree's botanical name is Theobroma cacao, which means literally: "food of the Gods", and most of us would agree.

• It was "discovered" by Europeans just about 500 years ago, when some explorers came across a large sea going canoe in the Gulf of Honduras, in which natives were transporting goods that included a cargo of cocoa beans!

• Now maybe you could argue it's a fruit since it's made from the fruit of the cacao tree............but it's classified as a vegetable. Not only is chocolate a vegetable, it's a unique vegetable: the only one that its fat is solid at room temperature. The fat [cocoa butter] melts in your mouth, luckily, and tastily too.

• Scientists report humans developed a fondness for chocolate drinks about 2,600 years ago!

Chocolate Tips to share at your Shows

• If you have melted chocolate on your hands, you're eating it too slowly.
• Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.
• How do you get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car? Eat it in the parking lot.
• Diet tip:  Eat a chocolate bar before each meal.  It takes the edge off your appetite and you will eat less.
• A nice box of chocolates provides your total daily intake of calories at one time, eliminating the need to count!
• If you can't eat all the chocolate, it will keep in the freezer.
• If calories are an issue with you, store your chocolate on top of the refrigerator.  Calories are basically afraid of heights, and they will tend to jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves.
• Eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate.  That's called a balanced diet.
• Money talks.  Chocolate sings!
• Chocolate has many preservatives.  Preservatives make you look younger.
• The reason there is no such organization as Chocoholics Anonymous is that no-one wants to quit.
• If not for chocolate, there may be no need for "control-top" pantyhose.  If you quit eating chocolate, a whole garment industry may be devastated, and unemployment may soar.
• Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today.  That way, you will be certain to accomplish one of your daily tasks.

Ever Wonder How Chocolate is made?

• It all begins on a plantation within 2 degrees of the equator. 1 cacao tree, planted in the shade of a larger tree, will produce 5 pounds of chocolate per year (each seedling takes 5-8 years to mature, so starting a plantation can take a while).

• At harvest time, plantation works gather, split and dry the cacao beans until they have reached a moisture content of only 7%. The average harvest requires 400 fermenting trays, 50 long-handled pod whoppers, 25 machetes, and a lot of burlap.

The dried pulp and other debris are removed from the beans. The beans are then sorted, selected and roasted. The outer shell is removed and the nibs are left to be crushed by a mill. The heat generated liquefies the pulp, resulting in what is referred to as “chocolate mass”. This mass is then sweetened and cooled into bricks to be used by chocolatiers like Stephany's Chocolates.