World Chocolate Day 2021

07 Jul 2021 | Comments Off

Celebrating the Discovery of Chocolate

It has been 471 years since chocolate has been brought over to Europe, and we are celebrating….. happy birthday, chocolate!

July 7th is of course our most favourite day of the year. On this day in 1550, chocolate was first brought over to Europe from South America and slowly over time made into the wonderful food we all know and love.

These days, cacao beans are grown mostly in Africa on large plantations, using a modern variety of bean that favours high yields over taste. We’ve stuck to tradition and use the original Peruvian Criollo Cacao in our organic chocolate bars. You can find out all about the journey those tasty cacao beans make here, and how we use them to make our delicious chocolate bars here in the heart of Staffordshire.

A Modern Twist on an Ancient Elixir

We want to bring chocolate back to it’s Mesoamerican roots, from the times when Olmec Indians drank powerful cacao drinks, when Aztecs used the beans as as a form of currency, and when the Mayans used them in marriage ceremonies as far back as 3,500 years ago.

The Aztecs believed that their God of Wisdom gifted them the Theobroma Cacao trees, which literally translates into “Food of The Gods”…A perfectly fitting name for the main ingedient in chocolate.

Olmec, Mayans and Aztecs used these cacao drinks as health elixirs, and believed that it was an incredible mood booster and an aphrodisiac. We aim to carry on those ancient traditions, thats why we love using unroasted cacao in our chocolate bars today – because we feel uplifted and energised when we eat raw chocolate.

You can experience this for yourself. Break a small amount of dark unroasted chocolate and let it sit on your tongue. As it starts to melt, move it around to release the strong flavours and smooth textures. Now, slowly, (wait for it) you should feel a little boost… thats the power of raw cacao.

Keeping To Tradition

Although a lot of modern chocolate bars are now full of sugar and dairy, and are not very healthy or powerful, some chocolate bars made today are still raw and simple. By not adding any refined sugar or dairy, we honour the natural properties of cacao. This also keeps our chocolate packed with rich, complex flavours, just as the Mesoamerican people enjoyed it all those years ago.

A Farmer holding a cacao pod over a pileof open cacao pods

Keeping the ingredients pure and simple also means that our chocolate bars are suitable for vegans, or anyone who is looking for dairy free chocolate, and also makes the chocolate is allergy free. We blend some of our chocolate bars with the sweet tasting yacon plant (another traditioinal, ancient Peruvian ingredient), and these are suitable for anyone who is avoiding sugar, as the yacon syrup is used instead of refined sugar.

Why not channel your inner Aztec this World Chocolate day? Try some unroasted, raw chocolate and no matter the type… mylk chocolate…. dark chocolate bars…. or super dark 100% chocolate bars, you’re bound to find one that you’ll love.