Publish Date: 04 Feb 2021 Fun facts
If you close your eyes and try to imagine the uses of the beloved chocolate, I would highly doubt it was once used as currency with which you could even pay taxes with and that’s only in its cocoa bean form before they even invented the mix called chocolate. Latin American societies used to deal with the cocoa tree which brought them closer to their gods through a hot drink made with cocoa, peppers, and some spices.
Chocolate, as we know it today, was invented around the 19th century in Holland by Coenraad van Houten who invented a chocolate press which Josephy Fry then transformed into the first modern chocolate bar.
The Swiss have the highest consumption per capita of chocolate in the world
While you might assume that the highest production of cocoa would be in Latin America where the plant was discovered, in reality West Africa holds the dominant position with over 30% of the global cocoa production. (Côte D’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, & Cameroon)