If you are a big fan of chocolate, and who isn’t, you will get a kick out of some of these little trivia items I discovered about chocolate.
Believe it or not, chocolate syrup was used to represent blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “Psycho” a scene which took 7 days to shoot. I know that sounds kind of gross, but hey a chick covered in chocolate doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me!
I don’t know about you but when I was a kid I got sick of hearing, “money doesn’t grow on trees”. Well in a way, it used to. Once upon a time, money did grow on trees cocoa beans were used as currency by the Mayan and Aztec civilizations over 1400 years ago. When they had too much money to spend, they brewed the excess into hot chocolate drinks. So when someone tells you that money doesn’t grow on trees you can say, “not anymore”. That is sure to get you some quizzical looks.
Who do you think eats the most chocolate every year? No, not me! I am talking about on a much bigger scale, like globally. The Swiss consume more chocolate per capita than any other nation on earth. That’s 22 pounds each compared to 11 pounds per person in the United States. I know Americans are pigs, but when it comes to chocolate, the Swiss are the kings of chocolate gluttony!
Here’s another neat little story that just adds to the term, “Napoleon complex”. It has been rumored that Napoleon carried chocolate with him on all his military campaigns for a quick energy snack. Kind of makes me think of a little nervous Chihuahua running around.
Do you know where we get the name “chocolate from’? We get it from the first lovers of chocolate, the ancient Aztecs. Chocolate is derived from their word, xocolatl”, which means bitter water. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? Of course if you ever tried to eat cooking chocolate you would probably agree with their definition.
It is popularly believed that chocolate is loaded with caffeine, but the amount of caffeine in chocolate is actually lower than most people think. A 1.4 ounce piece of milk chocolate contains about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of decaffeinated coffee. There is an average of 6 mg. of caffeine in both an ounce of milk chocolate and a cup of decaffeinated coffee, while a cup of regular coffee contains between 65 and 150 mg. of caffeine. So, maybe Napoleon was experiencing a placebo effect.
Gregg Hall is a business consultant for online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida. Get more info on fine chocolate at chocolates-plusdotcom