Chocolate Gift Baskets – What You Need To Know About Chocolate
Everybody knows that chocolate tastes good and that women tend to love it. But there are a lot of important and fun facts to know about chocolate. Chocolate has been valued for over 4,000 years by the Mayans in Central and South America. The beans have even been used a currency in the Caribbean areas, in the past, because it was so highly valued.
A chocolate beverage was popular in English chocolate houses in the 1700’s. People did not eat chocolate then, it was only in liquid form. The first chocolate producer founded in the US was in Mass. in 1765. Some years later chocolate started to be refined and developed into the many varieties we have today.
Conrad Van Houten, a Dutch chemist, invented cocoa butter in the 1840s. He then added sugar and chocolate liquor to make chocolate that you could eat instead of drink.
About the same time Domingo Ghiradelli opened a factory in San Francisco. His company is still famous for making upscale chocolates even today. Daniel Peter and Henri Nestle made the first milk chocolate. And still makes “the very best”. Ralph Lindt started to make chocolate using a “conching” method that made the chocolate melt in the mouth. Who doesn’t love that quality?
Chocolate has become a multi-billion dollar industry today. Some of the early pioneers in the making of chocolate, like Ghiradelli, Nestle, and Lindt, remain the leaders in quality today.
The quality of the chocolate that you find in a gift basket can either make or break the appeal of the basket itself. When you purchase a chocolate gift basket, or any wine, cheese or gourmet food basket that contains chocolate, make sure the chocolate is of good quality from a maker with a reputation for good, luxurious chocolate.
