Our Love Affair With Chocolate

As Valentine's everywhere Day approaches, the sweet treat is - but why do we love it so much?

- MITYA UNDERWOOD

The History Of Chocolate

Our love of chocolate is not a new thing, in fact scientists say humans have been eating it since at least 1,900 BC in Mesoamerica when it was believed that cacao seeds were a gift from the god of wisdom. Europeans knew nothing about the coveted cacao tree until the 16th century, when the explorer Christopher Columbus brought it back to Spain from the Americas in 1502. Joseph Fry bought the patent for a chocolate refining machine in 1761 and then founded JS Fry & Sons in Bristol, the first company to produce a solid chocolate bar. The first mass produced chocolate bar was Fry's Chocolate Cream, made in 1866, followed by Fry's Turkish Delight in 1914. The firm was taken over in the early 1900s by Cadbury's, and the original Bristol factory closed in 2011.

Why Do We Love Chocolate?

"As long as there is chocolate, there will be happiness", as the saying goes, and it's not too far from the truth for most of us! Lots of chocolate includes chemicals like tryptophan which the brain needs to make the happy hormone serotonin.

Make Your Own

Why not try your hand at making your own chocolate to really savour?

La Chocolatrice This shop in Newcastleupon-Tyne hosts truffle-making classes and even Easter egg-making workshops. Find more details at lachocolatrice.co.uk