Chocolate, a delightful Treat

(1) Chocolate - there's nothing quite like it, is there? Chocolate is simply delicious. What is chocolate? Where does it come from? Christopher Columbus was probably the first to take cocoa beans from the New World to Europe in around 1502. But the history of chocolate goes back at least 4,000 years! The Aztecs, who lived in America, thought that their bitter cocoa drink was a divine gift from heaven. In fact, scientist Carolus Linnacus named the plant Theobroma, which mecans "food of the Gods". The Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez went to Arnerica in 1519. He visited the Mexican emperor, Montezuma. He saw that Montezuma drank cocoa mixed with vanilla and spices. Cortez took some cocoa home as a gift to the Spanish King Charles, In Spain, people began to drink Cortez's chocolate in a drink with chili peppers. However, the natural taste of cocoa was too bitter for most people. To sweeten the drink, Europeans added sugar to the cocoa drink. As a sweet drink, it became more popular. By the l7th century, rich people in Europe were drinking it.

(2) Later, people started using chocolate in pastries, like pies and cakes. In 1828. Dutch chocolate makers started using a new process for removing the fat from cocoa beans, and getting to the center of the cocoa bean. The Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. van Houten made a machine that pressed the fat from the bean. The resulting powder mixed better with water than cocoa did. Now, some call Van Houten's chocolate "Dutch chocolate."

(3) It was casy to mix Dutch chocolate powder with sugar So other chocolate-makers started trying new recipes that used powdered chocolate. People started mixing swectened chocolate with cocoa butter to make solid chocolate bars. In 1849, an English chocolate-maker made the first chocolate bar. In the 19th century, the Swiss started making milk chocolate by mixing powdered milk with sweetened chocolate. Milk chocolate has not changed much since this process was invented.

(4) Today, two.countries- Brazil and Ivory Coast - account for almost half the world's chocolate. The United States imports most of the chocolates in the world, but the Swiss eats the most chocolate per person. The most chocolate eaten today is sweet milk chocolate, but people also cat white chocolate and dark chocolate.

(5) Cocoa and dark chocolate are believed to help prevent heart attacks, or help keep them from happening. They are supposed to be good for the circulatory system. On the other hand, the high fat content of chocolate can cause weight gain, which is not good for people's health. Other health claims for chocolate have not been proven. but some research shows that chocolate could be good for the brain.

(6) Chocolate is a popular holiday gift. A popular Valentine's Day gift is a box of chocolate candies with a card and flowers, Chocolate is sometimes given for Christmas and birthdays. Chocolate eggs are sometimes given at Easter

(7) Chocolate is toxic to some animals. An ingredient in chocolate is poisonous to dogs, cats, parrots, small rodents, and some livestock. Their bodies cannot process some of the chemicals found in chocolate. Therefore, they should never be fed chocolate.