Hey there! I’m excited to share some cool and fun facts about chocolate with you. Did you know that the first chocolate bar was made by Fry and Sons in 1847? This company later joined forces with Cadbury. Let’s dive into more interesting chocolate facts!
Thanks to the Industrial Revolution, chocolate became more accessible. In the early 1700s, machines started making chocolate, but back then, people only drank it. It wasn’t until about 100 years later that people began eating chocolate bars. Can you believe that in the United States, people consume 100 pounds of chocolate every second?
While Americans love chocolate, they aren’t the biggest chocolate eaters per person. The Swiss, Germans, Irish, and Brits eat about 24 pounds of chocolate each year! In contrast, the average person in China eats only 99 grams a year.
Cacao trees, which produce cocoa beans, start bearing fruit when they’re 3 or 4 years old. These trees can live up to 200 years! A special machine called a conche, invented by Rodolphe Lindt in 1879, helps mix cocoa butter into chocolate, giving it that smooth texture we love.
Frank C. Mars, who started Mars Incorporated, learned to make candy from his mom. He invented the Snickers bar, named after his favorite horse. Did you know that Snickers was called a Marathon bar in the UK and Ireland until 1990?
Americans buy a lot of chocolate during holidays. Before Easter, they purchase around 71 million pounds of chocolate candy! That’s more than before Valentine’s Day but less than before Halloween.
In the classic movie “Psycho,” the crew used chocolate syrup as fake blood because it looked realistic in black and white. In the TV show “I Love Lucy,” they hired a real chocolatier to teach Lucy how to make chocolates!
A study in 2014 found that drinking cocoa-rich beverages might improve memory in older adults. While we can’t say for sure that chocolate is a memory booster, it’s a fun idea to think about!
The Aztec ruler Montezuma II reportedly drank 50 cups of chocolate daily. During World War II, Hershey created a special chocolate bar for the military that could withstand high temperatures.
M&M’s have been to space over 130 times since 1981! Their hard candy shell makes them perfect for space travel.
Chocolate contains theobromine, which is toxic to dogs, so keep it away from your furry friends. Interestingly, theobromine can also help suppress coughs.
In 2006, a German chocolate factory made a giant cuckoo clock out of chocolate, weighing 250 pounds! And at the Cadbury factory, they produce about 1.5 million Cadbury Cream Eggs every day.
Thanks for joining me on this chocolate adventure! Whether you’re celebrating a holiday or just enjoying a sweet treat, chocolate is always a delicious choice. Remember, chocolate is not just a treat; it’s a journey through history and culture. Enjoy!
Create a timeline that highlights the key events in the history of chocolate. Use the information from the article to mark important dates, such as the invention of the first chocolate bar and the introduction of chocolate machines during the Industrial Revolution. Add illustrations or images to make your timeline visually appealing.
Research and create a bar graph comparing chocolate consumption per person in different countries mentioned in the article, such as the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and China. Discuss why you think there are differences in chocolate consumption between these countries.
Design a poster that explains the life cycle of a cacao tree. Include details about how long it takes for the tree to start bearing fruit and how long it can live. Use drawings or printed images to illustrate each stage of the tree’s life cycle.
Work in groups to create a short skit that reenacts a famous chocolate scene from pop culture, such as the chocolate factory scene from “I Love Lucy.” Incorporate fun facts from the article, like the use of chocolate syrup in “Psycho,” to make your skit both entertaining and educational.
Conduct a simple experiment to explore the melting points of different types of chocolate (dark, milk, and white). Record your observations and discuss how the composition of each chocolate type affects its melting point. Relate your findings to the article’s mention of chocolate’s use in space travel.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
—
Hi, I’m John Green. Welcome to my salon! This is Mental Floss on YouTube, and did you know that the first-ever chocolate bar was made by the company Fry and Sons in 1847? That company eventually merged with Cadbury. That’s the first of many facts about chocolate I’m going to share with you today in this video brought to you by Geico in honor of Easter. And if you don’t celebrate Easter, well, at least we can all agree that candy is delicious!
We can thank the Industrial Revolution for access to chocolate. During the early 1700s, the chocolate-making process became mechanized, but back then, people only drank their chocolate. They didn’t start eating it until about a century later. According to USA Today, 100 pounds of chocolate are consumed in the United States each second, which reminds me—Mark, I haven’t had a Hershey’s kiss in like 14 seconds! What do I pay you to do exactly? Oh, edit Mental Floss, apparently.
But the U.S. doesn’t actually lead the world in chocolate consumption per capita. There’s one food that we don’t eat the most of—it’s actually the Swiss, Germans, Irish, and Brits. In those countries, the average person eats about 24 pounds of chocolate each year, compared with the average citizen of China, who will eat a mere 99 grams of chocolate in a year.
Cacao trees don’t even produce the cocoa beans found in chocolate until they’re around 3 or 4 years old, but cacao trees can live for a long time—sometimes even up to 200 years. A conche is the heated mixer that allows cocoa butter to be evenly incorporated into chocolate and creates the smooth texture. It was actually invented by Rodolphe Lindt in 1879, and if that name sounds familiar, it might be because he was also the founder of the Lindt Chocolate Factory.
Frank C. Mars, who founded Mars Incorporated, learned how to make candy from his mom in the late 1800s. He had polio, so she taught him how to hand-dip chocolate while homeschooling him. He went on to invent the Snickers bar, which he actually named after his favorite horse. Speaking of Snickers, up until 1990, it was called a Marathon in the UK and Ireland because a single bar has enough calories to support you while you are running a marathon.
The company Nestlé came to be in 1905 when a European condensed milk company joined forces with H. J. Nestlé, a German pharmacist who had been making milk-based baby food. During the week before Easter, Americans buy around 71 million pounds of chocolate candy—that’s more than the week before Valentine’s Day, around 48 million, but less than the week before Halloween, about 90 million. By the way, all these chocolate facts are making me hungry!
Hershey’s kisses were wrapped by hand between their invention in 1907 and 1921 when a machine was created that could do that work. Because the film Psycho was filmed in black and white, the crew used Bosco chocolate syrup in place of fake blood so it would look more like blood on camera. For the classic I Love Lucy episode “Job Switching,” in which Lucy gets a job at a candy factory, they cast an actual chocolatier. Desi Arnaz discovered her making chocolate at a farmer’s market and cast her as the woman who teaches Lucy how to hand-dip chocolates.
The Quaker Oats Company bought the rights to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then financed the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in order to promote a new candy bar, which they named the Wonka Bar. It’s one of those things where the marketing was significantly better than the product.
Now, Harry Potter was not written to sell chocolate frogs, although that was a wonderful side benefit. In the Danish translation of Harry Potter, the chocolate frogs are called “plat,” and considering that “plat” is a slang word for stupid, they’re basically called “stupid owls.”
In 1947, there was a chocolate bar strike in the town of Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. The children of the town were outraged when the price of candy bars at the local café was raised from 5 cents to 8 cents. Children began to picket the store, and the protest got so much attention that it made the newspaper. Protests then spread to cities like Edmonton and Montreal, and eventually, they were branded as Communists, and the movement fizzled out. Nowadays, 5 cents will buy you a chocolate chip if you’re lucky.
A 2014 study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience found that healthy adults between 50 and 69 years of age scored higher on a memory test after drinking a beverage with a lot of cocoa flavonols for 3 months compared with adults who had been drinking a low-flavonol mixture. This might mean that chocolate can improve memory, although we can’t conflate correlation and causation. But I want chocolate to be good for me!
The last great ruler of the Aztecs, Montezuma II, allegedly drank 50 cups of chocolate every day. The Maya baptized babies with a mixture of ground cacao beans, flowers, and water. In the 1940s, Hershey invented the Tropical Bar for the U.S. military. They created it to withstand high heat; it could maintain its shape after an hour in 120°F. They produced over 380 million of these bars by the end of World War II.
Speaking of deliciousness, M&M’s have been brought to space over 130 times since 1981. They’re perfect because they can withstand any condition—there’s chocolate inside, but the hard candy shell on the outside. A 2004 study found that 70% of people would give away their computer password when bribed with a single chocolate bar.
Interestingly, theobromine in chocolate is poisonous to dogs; they shouldn’t eat it because they metabolize it too slowly. So you cannot have chocolate, mostly because you’re made of porcelain, but partly because it would make you sick. Interestingly, theobromine is also a cough suppressant. In fact, a 2004 study showed that it’s about a third more effective than codeine.
In 2006, the Hohenzollern Chocolate Factory in Germany teamed up with the Hars Clock Factory to create the world’s largest cuckoo clock made out of chocolate. At over 9 feet tall, it weighed 250 pounds. In a 2008 study from the University of Copenhagen, men ate 15% less pizza after eating 100 mg of dark chocolate as opposed to the same amount of milk chocolate. The researchers believe that dark chocolate might help curb cravings for salty foods, but the lesson for me is that if you want to eat a lot of pizza—and I do—you should probably eat milk chocolate.
At the Cadbury factory in Bournville, they can produce around 1.5 million Cadbury Cream Eggs every day. And finally, I return to my salon to tell you that in the 17th century, a bishop in the Spanish town of Chiapas banned chocolate during mass because women kept having their maids bring them hot chocolate during services. Suspiciously soon afterwards, the bishop died, and many believed that he had been poisoned in the name of chocolate.
Thanks for watching this episode of Mental Floss on YouTube, which was made possible by our friends at Geico and created by all of these nice people. Have a happy Easter if you’re celebrating; if not, enjoy chocolate regardless—it’s delicious! I’m sorry if you’re allergic. Anyway, as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome!
—
Let me know if you need any further modifications!
Chocolate – A sweet, brown food made from roasted and ground cacao seeds, often used in desserts and sweets. – The Aztecs and Mayans were among the first to make a drink from chocolate, which they believed had special powers.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – Learning about the history of ancient civilizations helps us understand how modern societies have developed.
Cacao – The seed from which cocoa and chocolate are made, originally cultivated in Central and South America. – The cacao tree was highly valued by ancient cultures for its seeds, which were used as currency and in rituals.
Beans – The seeds of certain plants, such as cacao, used for food or other products. – Cacao beans were so valuable in ancient times that they were often used as money by the Aztecs.
Revolution – A significant change in political power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. – The Industrial Revolution brought about major changes in technology and manufacturing processes.
Memory – The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. – Studying history helps improve our memory of important events and their impact on the world.
Candy – A sweet food made with sugar or chocolate, often enjoyed as a treat. – During the 19th century, candy became more widely available due to advances in sugar production.
Culture – The social behavior, norms, and practices found in human societies. – The culture of ancient Egypt is known for its impressive achievements in architecture and art.
Syrup – A thick, sweet liquid made by dissolving sugar in boiling water, often used in cooking and baking. – In colonial America, maple syrup was a popular sweetener made from the sap of maple trees.
Factory – A building or group of buildings where goods are manufactured or assembled chiefly by machine. – The first chocolate factory in the United States was established in the late 18th century, marking the beginning of mass chocolate production.
