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  • Fine chocolate does not have to mean a bar made with 70% plus cocoa solids.  Quality depends on factors like variety of beans, where they are grown, fermentation process, drying process, and the manufacturer’s recipe & methods.
  • Chocolate features in Mozart’s opera Cosi Fan Tutte where a maid enters a chocolate shop carrying a chocolate pot and cups and is eventually tempted to taste it.
  • In the 18th and 19th centuries it was common practice for corrupt persons to use brick dust and red lead in place of cocoa when making chocolate!
  • Store your chocolate at room temperature, not in the fridge.  Keep it away from direct sunlight and from changes in temperature or it will turn white-grey (this is known as blooming).  White chocolate is especially vulnerable to picking up foreign flavours, so keep it away from pungent foods.
  • Chocolate was included in soldiers’ ration packs in World War I.
  • Is it spelled cocoa or cacao?  Reputedly the Victorians couldn’t pronounce cacao and so renamed it cocoa.