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  • The Aztecs were the first to purport that cocoa had aphrodisiac properties and for this reason all foods made with cocoa were forbidden to women!  In the seventeenth century an Austrian professor tried to ban the drinking of chocolate in monasteries because it ‘inflamed passions’.
  • When the Spanish conquered South American Aztec lands they discovered the Aztec’s special drink and found that a draught of chocolate could sustain them for a whole day’s hard marching.
  • Chocolate contains over 300 chemicals including a multitude of vitamins, minerals (calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium).
  • Fall in love with Divine: Chocolate contains a chemical called phenylethylamine which is released naturally in the body when you fall in love and is also considered to be an aphrodisiac.
  • Chocolate also contains dopamine which is a natural painkiller.
  • Serotonin which is found in chocolate produces feelings of pleasure.
  • Even the smell of chocolate causes relaxation: it significantly reduces theta activity in the brain which is associated with relaxation (Source: International Journal of Psychophysiology, 1998).
  • A cup of cocoa (using pure cocoa powder) has double the amount of antioxidants as green tea (Source: Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 2003).
  • Chocolate has over 400 distinct smells.  A rose has only fourteen and an onion just six or seven.
  • What is happiness?  Brits prefer a chocolate bar to an extravagant holiday abroad.  It’s the small things that make us happy a survey reveals.  A small gift such as chocolate was in the top five of the Happy Poll carried out by the Happy Egg Company (Source: Happy Egg Company poll, 29 Oct 2009).