Whether you are looking for a comfort food, a quick burst of something sweet in your mouth or you just love the feeling of eating it and the taste, you will find that you are certainly not alone when it comes to loving chocolate! Chocolate, which comes from the cocoa bean of South America, is one of the world's most favorite tastes and there is a good reason why!

Chocolate has many things to recommend it, and though there are plenty of jokes about women and chocolate, the truth is that it has that effect on almost everyone. Chocolate is known to stimulate the circulatory system, and when eaten in small amounts, it is an energy rich food. The process of letting chocolate melt in your mouth has the effect of stimulating your brain activity and heart rate; this is essentially the same reaction that you get from passionate kissing, only it lasts four times as long. No wonder people love giving this gift to a spouse or significant other!

People have been eating chocolate in one way or another for more than three thousand years. Many of the peoples of South America have been making chocolate beverages throughout history, though today's chocolate lover might shy away from the bitterness. Pure cacao beans are extremely bitter, and first they must be dried, cleaned and roasted to create cacao nips. Then the nibs are ground down and made into a liquid, which gives pure chocolate liquor, which could be fermented into an alcohol.

The cacao bean was introduced to Europe in the 16th century, when it became an instant favorite with the Spanish court. It was a favorite with the nobility and the people who could afford it, and the taste soon spread to England and to the rest of Europe. A milk chocolate was created in Jamaica, which was originally used for medical purposes, but quickly became a well loved drink.



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