Photo from Wikipedia on Chocolate.
Here's everything you want to know about chocolate and some you didn't know you didn't know.
Why do we need a chocolate day? Chocolate lovers can eat chocolate any day, without asking permission. Not if you are on a diet.
I used to think that food days and other invented nonsense dreamed up by PR companies and business associations were not of interest. But now that I am President of a Toastmasters club looking for a theme for a meeting an event like a chocolate day is just my thing. Also an excuse to indulge.
What is best for you? Rinse mouth and clean teeth after eating chocolate, or any sugary food, or any food and drink.
Chocolate, Sugar, Having a Sweet Tooth and Teeth
Fillings are one fear. Losing teeth is another problem. My dental hygienist in the UK told me teeth drop out because of weakness in the bones of the jaw. Osteoporosis. Doctors give you pills to counteract this. But if you take calcium and vitamin D pills for 5 years, your jaw is so rigid that if you need a molar removed, you go to hsopital because your jaw is so hard they risk breaking it when trying to pull out a tooth. But there are two types of supplement, vitamin D and calcium - check labels and ask doctor or dentist or pharmacist.)
Back to chocolate:
Firstly, what are the chocolate days?
7 July World/ International Chocolate Day.
28 July Milk Chocolate Day.
13 Sept World Chocolate Day according to the National Confectioners Assoc of America.
22 Sept White chocolate Day.
Oct 28 US National chocolate Day.
When did all this start?
It all started over in America. The Aztecs and Mexicans drank bitter chocolate drinks.
Cadbury in England removed the fat floating on top of chocolate drinks and wondered what to do with the leftover flat. He made it into a pressed chcolate slab, added sugar to offset the bitterness, and chocolate to eat was born. A blessing to the world.
Drinking chocolate and cocoa - same thing really.
Just check the ingredients. A cup of hot chocolate is hugely calorific. Not good for your weight or your teeth in the long run but a short term lift of physical and mental energy.
After I eat chocolate biscuits or chocolates in the interval at HOD Toastmasters in London I am full of energy and enthusiasm for table topics (impromptu speech subjects picked off the table or out of a lucky dip bag).
England has a huge sugar and chocolate consumption and in supermarkets you will notice a huge variety of home produced chocolate and chocolate imported from Europe.
If you drive north to Birmingham you are likely to pass the Cadbury Factory and shop. In busy seasons and days you need to book and pay for a tour, but the shop itself is a treat to visit. You may know the phrase as useless as a chocolate teapot. Yes, I have seen them selling chocolate teapots.
Goods change seasonally. The two big seasons for selling chocolate are the cold months of winter and spring, Christmas in December, Valentine's Day in February and Easter which moves around but often mid March which can be cool but the chocolate warms you up.
Another place to visit is York, which has a museum exhitition and shop.
Back down in London several chocolate shops run evening classes on chocolate, a fun outing.
London also hosts a couple of Chocolate Exhibitions. You might think, what can I learn or see that I don't already know from browsing in a supermaket? Firstly there are talks on chocolate with free tastings, children's activities such as putting designs on chocolate lollipops, parades of dresses and hats made of chocolate or whatever is the surprise of the season. Also chocolates from around the world.
Some useful chocolate lists:
UK
See brands from all over the world. I think the best chocolates and chocolate biscuits are in Marks & Spencers.
In the UK supermarkets sell chocolate digestive biscuits with chocolate on one side. One day I looked at the calorie count and realised why I was not losing weight when I had a chocolate biscuit with my coffee every morning at eleven and again at tea time.
English Versus American Chocolate
My mother used to buy me Dairy Milk chocolate when I was a child. She thought that the milk content would be good for me. It is disapponting to learn that milk chocolate is not made from fresh milk but dried milk powder.
USA
I seemed that Hershey made chocolate for the US military overseas in WWII, hence the dark chocolate so loved by Americans. I prefer Cadbury's dairy milk, especially the fruit and nut which adds protein and fruit and reduced the overload of sugar.
I seemed to remember Hershey as a success story. It was a surprise to read the Wiki article and refer back to sources and discover that to prevent soldiers instantly gorging on their energy bars, the chocolate bars had cereals and flavouring additions to make them taste less palatable. Soldiers disliked the chocolate bars so much that they threw them away, gave them away or sold or exchanged them with UK and other troops. Far from melting, the chocolate was so hard that soldiers could not bite it and had to shave off pieces with a knife.
However, the M & Ms slogan, melts in your mouth, not in your hand, was deemed both memorable and popular.
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Postwar Hershey adapted the chocolate bars to make them acceptable to the civilian population. I once left a chocolate bar on the back window shelf in a parked car. I came back and the chocolate had gone. I wondered who had eaten it. Then I found a plate of chocolate under the wrapper. It had melted out. So, the moral is, do not leave in your car a baby, child, adult, dog, or chocolate. Later in the day the interior of the car can get hot.
UK brands and bars:
Aero (has holes)
After Eight (thin square mints)
Bounty (contains coconut) so good that if you are used to Bounty bars real coconut and cocunt milk tastes insipid
Chocolate Orange
Crunchie
Easter Egg (favourites are small ones with cream filling, yellow colour centre, foil wrap) Large ones can be hollow or filled with smaller eggs
Flake
Fry's Turkish Delight (Rose jelly with chocolate covering)
Kinder Surprise (Egg with toy inside) Kinder is German for child
Kit Kat (wafer covered in chocolate)
Kisses (Tiny chocolates in foil)
Maltesers (balls with hard crunch centre with holes)
Milky Bar (white chocolate)
Mint chocolates include: After Eights, Elizabeth Shaw, Kendal Mint
Mozart (From Vienna, Austria, in foil imprinted with a picture of Mozart - buy them there or on the national airline)
Penguin (biscuit in sandwich shape with cream centre and chocolate covering)
Smarties (Hard chocolate buttons with various colours)
Toblerone (Swiss, traingular like Swiss mountains)
Singapore and Asia
Chocolates are not so popular in Asia and Singapore. Chocolates are sticky and melt in the heat. You are deyhdrated and don't want dry food. You need to drink water, rather than sugary drinks which make you thirstier.
However, Singapore has the most inventive coloured chocolate. The chefs at an upmarket restaurant Pollen, in the Gardens By The Bay, have created assorted coloured and fruit flavoured chocolates, which can be prsented on a palette of rainbow coloured chocolate. Very expensive and time consuing. Done for weddings.
For everyday coloured chocolate, in Singapore you can try a KitKat which is coloured green.
Researching Chocolate
I found Wikipedia too detailed and complicated. Simple Wiki sorted me out. And had up to date photos instead of historical ones.
Birthday and Blind Tasting
On one occasion I was looking for chocolate bar to buy for a family birthday. I could not decide which chocolate to buy. Some had more chocolate content than others. I calculated the cost of buying one of each and that was within my budget. Whilst a chocolate bar is not a big present, a set of six chocolate bars of different chocolate contents so we could all do a blind tasting was interesting.
To my surprise the ones with the highest chocolate conent were more bitter. I preferred a sweeter version. My husband who likes dark chocolate opted for a different brand and chocolate content. that also saved money on later purchases as I knew I did not need the most expensive brand.
The best fun I ever had with chocolate was when I bought a chocolate house kit in the post Christmas sale. You melted chocolate into moulds, then stuck it together to make a chocolate house. It looked very impressive on the dinner table. We used it for two dinner parties. After the first dinner, we ate
only leftover spare chocolate and the chocolate fence and chimney. We saved most of the house intact for the second party and then ate it.
Cooking chocolate is less sweet, especailly as it is sometimes used in savoury recipes.
Cheap Chocolates
Cooking chocolate is sometimes sold in markets where it appears cheaper, in large packets, with the word cooking chocolate small or not noticed. When you eat it, the texture and flavour are not right.. it is waxy, from having oil or vegetable oil instead of milk or butter or cream. Cheap chocolates are the same, less chocolae flavour, and a more waxy texture. After the second one you have an overdose of sugar and feel you have over-indulged and don't want any more.
I used to like Sara Lee frozen chcolate cake because it had more chocolate flavour.
Other Kinds of Chocolate
Biscuits
Cakes
Drinks - chocolate milkshake
Spreads
Also think of Nutella chocolate spread from Italy, an inspired piece of marketing of surplus products.
Free Tasting For Tourists
In the Czeck republic's capital Prague we found a chocolate shop with two or more branches which offered free tastings. We had some free chocolate and didn't buy and felt a bit guiltily. However, on our last day we rushed back and bought several souvenirs for ourselves and family back home.
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g274707-d7162572-Reviews-Prague_Chocolate_Steiner_Kovarik-Prague_Bohemia.html
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g274707-d6109726-Reviews-Cokolada_cz_Chocolate_Shop-Prague_Bohemia.html
By Nationality
Baci
Italian - Ferrero Rocher; Baci (tiny chocolate with hazelnut, gluten free and kosher)
UK - Cadbury, Fry's
USA Hershey
Places to Visit
Branches of UK supermarkets: Marks & Spencer, Moorrisons, Tesco, Harrods, Hotel Chocolat shops.
Museums and Factory Shops:
Belgium
Czech Republic
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g274707-d7162572-Reviews-Prague_Chocolate_Steiner_Kovarik-Prague_Bohemia.html
France
Singapore
Switzerland
Alprose, Switzerland.
UK
London, chocolate shops.
York.
Cadbury's near Birmingham.
USA
Hersheys shop in New York.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/must-see-factory-tours-united-states.html/
Singapore
https://www.aalstchocolate.com/findus
Useful Websites
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/search/chocolate+day/
https://www.candyusa.com/story-of-chocolate/what-is-chocolate/kinds-of-chocolate/
About the Author
Some puns or parodies of my Toastmasters International letters:
B A Hons Brownie Addict Honestly
Angela Lansbury CC Confirmed Chocoholic
ALB Always Likes Brownies
ACG Adores Chocolate/Chocolate Cake Gifts
