As a child growing up chocolate used to be such a luxury to taste or buy. The only time we could have it at my house was on the social grant day. My granny would wake up early to avoid the long lines and on her way back home she would buy the biggest chocolate she could find. She would then distribute it fairly among the grandchildren; being her favourite, I would always get extra! 

As a teenager I remember chocolates being used as a declaration of love, specifically P.S chocolate. Back in primary school during Valentine’s Day, boys would get the girl they liked red roses, love letters and a P.S chocolate. It would even be more special if the message written on the P.S chocolate cover said something romantic.

As a young adult at varsity I used to be obsessed with Lunch Bar, but most of the time I couldn’t afford to buy it (the smallest one was around R4; strangely it still is). So when I got my first paycheck, the first thing I did was buy myself a R4 Lunch Bar chocolate and it remains my favourite chocolate of all time.

For World Chocolate Day it’s only fair to celebrate the deliciousness that is the taste of chocolate. So we are doing that by dropping some fun facts about chocolates you may not know, from The Fact Site, in an article written by Dan Lewis:

• Besides milk, dark, and white varieties of chocolate, there is a rare fourth type known as blonde chocolate. Blonde chocolate was originally a mistake. According to James Cadbury, founder of Love Cocoa and great-great-great grandson of the original Mr Cadbury, “a chef left white chocolate melting for too long, resulting in the chocolate going through a ‘maillard’” or browning reaction. 
• The film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was financed by Quaker Oats to promote its new Wonka Bar candy. That’s why it’s named that instead of the original book’s title of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
• Joseph Fry invented the first chocolate bar in 1847.
• Darker chocolates can have as much caffeine as a can of Coca Cola.
• Montezuma II, an Aztec emperor, drank over 50 cups of chocolate per day. 

Chocolate is sweet, the memories associated with it can be even sweeter. What is your favourite memory that you associate with chocolate?

If you enjoyed this article, you may like the not so humble sandwich