Facts About Chocolate

  1. 'Chocolate' comes from the Aztec 'cacahuatl' or 'xocolatl' meaning 'bitter water'.
  2. The word 'cocoa' was the result of the misspelling of 'cacao'.
  3. A cocoa pod contains around 40 to 45 cocoa beans. It takes from 135 to 270 cocoa beans to make one pound of chocolate.
  4. The amount caffeine in chocolate is relatively small. There are about 5 to 10 milligrams of caffeine in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, 5 milligrams in milk chocolate, and 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa. An eight-ounce cup of coffee has 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine.
  5. It has been reported that Napoleon carried chocolate with him, and always ate some when he needed quick energy.
  6. Chocolate has over 500 individual flavor components. Strawberry and vanilla each have less than half that much.
  7. 98% of the world’s cocoa is produced by just 15 countries.
  8. Cocoa butter melts at slightly below normal body temperature, which is why chocolate will melt in your mouth.
  9. Britons consumed a quarter of the continent's entire chocolate supply according to a 2006 survey. Average consumption was 10kg (22lb) a year, or 605,000 tonnes of chocolate nationally.