Just A Spoonful of Chocolate

The NCA's Chocolate Council sent photos and a link to The Story of Chocolate in honor of American Chocolate Week, March 20-March 26.
Shouldn't every week be chocolate week? How about every other week alternating with Gummi Week. There's a National Chocolate Council? Do they sip chocolate drinks out of edible tea cups?

The National Confectioner's Association offers information such as how many minutes of biking it takes to work off a 1.5 oz candy bar (30), and The Story of Chocolate tells you it takes two to four days to make a chocolate bar. After a few minutes on the Council's website you will no longer be interested in how long it takes to work off a 1.5 oz candy bar.

It will also tell you that the cacao tree is "delicate" and needs taller trees to shade it in order to survive. The cacao leaves themselves can move 90 degrees to protect more tender leaves from sunlight.



Cacao trees produce these pods which can be more than a foot long, growing directly from the trunk or branches sans stem. They take up to six months to ripen, The Story of Chocolate goes on to tell you. The outside of the pod varies in texture and the inside contains juice, pulp, and many seeds.
I could spoon feed you chocolate facts all day, but will leave you with the reason the pods, trees, and tree yield varieties are so Spocking fascinating.

Photos courtesy of the National Confectioners Association