A Chocolate on Valentine’s Day Keeps My Sweetheart at Bay

 

    As the days flew by, before you knew it January has almost come to an end and when February came upon us, you just finished your tiring days that were loaded with heaps of cumbersome never-ending tasks and was just about to order a take out when suddenly you are greeted with explosions of colorful hues of white, pink, and red resting upon the shop displays, with heart-shaped balloons and arrays of vases crammed with roses wrapped into gifting papers. Shop clerks hang their heart-shaped ornaments along the ceiling of their store and for some suspicious reason the pricey chocolate you’ve been craving for so long suddenly had a discount! But why ? It isn’t your special day isn’t it (or if it is I beg your pardon for being unaware of such a fact)? What's the first thing that comes into your mind when you see all those lovey-dovey stuff blocking up your view? That’s right Valentine’s! Although February the 14th may not be a national worldwide holiday, Valentine’s Day still remains a popular day to celebrate with one’s loved ones.

     When one looks up for this word on the net, it isn’t surprising if pictures of roses, chocolate, sweet-talking cards, and cupids equipped with their infamous I’ll-make-you-fall-for-me archery kits filling up your desktop screen. Sure, chocolate and valentines are quite a pair that get along on this special day. It is also said that Americans and Europeans consume most of the world’s chocolate. Nearly 9 in 10 U.S. adults say they buy chocolate, and seasonal retail sales of chocolate increase 6.1 percent from 2011-2013 over previous years, according to market researchers over at Mintel. But then again, have you ever wondered why someone would settle with giving another one chocolate? Why not lollipops? Taffies? Or in Indonesian’s popular gourmet treats, Getuk Lindri (a cake made from cassava with grated coconut)? I’m well aware that most of you are familiar with the tragic history behind this chocolate-giving day, but I bet none of you know why is chocolate always the best option?

     So why chocolate?

     Well, looking back in history, dated back when the Mayans haven’t been obliterated by the Spaniards, chocolate was used in religious ceremonies and savoring it at the end of feasts, they were the first culture to make the connection between chocolate and love. Some Mayan wedding ceremonies included a ritual where the bride and groom ceremonially sipped chocolate. Mayans weren’t the only ones involving sweets in the ceremonies. Another belief stated that Aztecs too participated in using these in their rituals (of course not in form of the chocolate we know these days mind you). Both civilizations believe that chocolate, or to be more appropriate ‘cacao beans’, had magical and divine properties that were suitable for use in the most sacred rituals of birth, marriage, and death. According to Chloe Doutre-Roussel's book The Chocolate Connoisseur, Aztec sacrifice victims who felt too melancholy to join in ritual dancing before their death were often given a gourd of chocolate (tinged with the blood of previous victims) to cheer them up. Who would’ve thought that the sweets we know these days were actually really important things related to the civilizations that were infamous for their human sacrifices?

     Continuing on, history states that the Aztec king Montezuma welcomed the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a banquet that included drinking chocolate. However, the bitter taste of the blended cacao beans didn’t quite fit the taste buds of the invaders in that era for one Spanish man wrote that “it was a drink suitable for pigs.” Then again, that statement quickly dissipated when one counters the bitterness of this drink by mixing in honey, cinnamon paste, and sugarcane into the blend. It was so finger-licking good, so deliciously addictive that chocolate’s popularity received a great turnabout in Spain and quickly gained fame throughout Europe.

     Although it remained in high demand in the 16th century, chocolate still remained as liquor instead of the current solid-state we are all familiar with and it was so expensive that only the wealthy may treat themselves to the beverage. It wasn’t until 1847 when a man named Joseph Fry discovered a new method to the conventional chocolate drink. He poured the liquefied state of chocolate into a mold then added melted cacao butter into the cacao powdered sugar paste. It was the first step to reaching the current state of plastic wrapped chocolate bars. J.S. Fry & Sons, along with competitor Cadbury, which was established in 1824, then introduced their small packaged chocolate candied sweets, dubbed as the “fancy box” by the locals, in England in 1861.

     Alright, enough of history and let us move along to science. Another reason why people believe chocolate is the best gift to give to one’s sweetheart is that chocolate is often regarded as an aphrodisiac- a food, drink, or drug that stimulates sexual desire. Scientists claim the aphrodisiac qualities of chocolate as two chemicals. One, tryptophan, is a building block of serotonin, a brain chemical involved in sexual arousal. The other, phenylethylamine, a stimulant related to amphetamine, is released in the brain when people fall in love. But most researchers believe that the amounts of these substances in chocolate are too small to have any measurable effect on desire. Studies that have looked for a direct link between chocolate consumption and heightened sexual arousal have found none.

     Wondering what to give to your dearest on February the 14th? Then, just woman up and shove a box of your delicately (or not :P) wrapped chocolate into their faces! It may be a cliché thing to give since everyone is basically giving the same thing, but history has proved that chocolate has a high worth of value and a high rate of captivating your loved one’s heart. Plus almost everyone cannot resist taking a bite from this sweet yet irresistible temptation. I’m not forcing you to ravage an entire store and buy all their shelf-full of molded chocolate bars just to make a cute heart-shaped gift to bottle up your feelings. You’re free to focus on your handmade knits or decorating your heart-shaped cards with stickers and glitters and all, you’re the one to decide not me. But by making these sweet confectionaries, I’m sure we’ll be able to live up to the romantic traditions settled back in the old days.

Written by Febe Kayla XII MIPA 3