Interesting Facts 67

The world’s first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolate-maker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar.

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.

The melting point of cocoa butter is just below the human body temperature — which is why it literally melts in your mouth.

The earliest cocoa plantations were established in 600 AD, in the Yucatan, by the Mayans.

The botanical name of the chocolate plant is Theobramba cacao, which means “Food of the gods.”

In 1900, Queen Victoria sent her New Year’s greetings to the British troops stationed in South Africa during the Boer War in the form of a spaecially molded chocolate bar.