In case your holiday season wasn’t busy enough, here’s something else to celebrate: It’s National Cocoa Day.
Think you know cocoa, and the chocolate made from it? Test your knowledge with these quick questions.
True or False?
- Eating chocolate may help lower your blood pressure.
- Humans have been eating and drinking chocolate for several thousand years, since before the birth of Christ.
- One of the chemical compounds in cocoa is theobromine, which derives its name from the Greek root words for "God" and "food"; hence, "food of the gods."
- Chocolate or cocoa "liquor" contains no alcohol; it refers to the combination of pure cocoa solids and cocoa butter that results during the processing of beans.
- It’s safe to eat chocolate with small white spots, called "bloom."
- In addition to coffees and cordials, there are also chocolate-flavored wines.
- You can now buy chocolate-coated bacon as well as chocolate candy rolled in rose petals or flavored with hot chili peppers.
- Some people in France derogatorily refer to chocolate made with substitute fats as "cocholat" from the word for pig, cochon.
- Chocolate food stains on clothing can be hard to remove because of the colored compounds dissolved in fat.
- Although chocolate may put us in the mood for romance, its qualities as an aphrodisiac are very limited.
O.K., you chocolate aficionados out there. You probably guessed by now that all of the above statements are true.
Whether we prefer our chocolate dark and bitter or sweet and milky, for plenty of us, every day may as well be National Cocoa Day. Enjoy!
