Celebrate National Chocolate Day Every October 28

• By NSC
• 1 Comment.

 

 

Chocolate lovers, here’s another day for you: National Chocolate Day.

Now, if it seems like we just celebrated, chocolate, that’s probably because we did. Just a few weeks ago, on September 13, we celebrated International Chocolate Day.

But we can never have enough days to celebrate chocolate. There’s just so many ways to enjoy it. Of course, some of those ways also have their own days. Like Chocolate Covered Raisins Day in March. Or Chocolate Mint Day in February.

But National Chocolate Day celebrates chocolate in all its glory. By itself. As an ingredient. As a candy coating. However you prefer it.

As long as it’s chocolate, we celebrate it every October 28.

 

A Few Morsels of Chocolate Trivia

Chocolate is America’s favorite flavor (shocking, I know!). We eat about 12 pounds per person per year. That’s a lot of chocolate!

Chocolate comes from a seed, specifically the seed of a tree called Theobroma cacao.

This seed is actually quite bitter if you try to eat it raw—and actually, unsweetened chocolate is on the bitter side too. It takes lots of work to turn those seeds into luscious chocolate treats.

The seeds get fermented, then dried and cleaned. Finally they’re roasted. But that’s not the end. The part we want is actually inside the shell, called the cacao nibs.

Grinding these nibs creates what is called cocoa mass. Finally, we have chocolate! Liquified cocoa mass is called chocolate liquor, and this is used to make various chocolate products.

The liquor is also the stage where manufacturers separate it into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Different amounts of cocoa butter are added back to the solids to make different kinds of chocolate. Or, in the case of white chocolate, just the cocoa butter gets used, no solids.

Although this amount of processing to create chocolate is relatively new, people have been growing and using cacao for at least 3,000 years. They were making chocolate drinks in what is now Mexico and Guatemala at least by 1900 B.C.

The Mayas and Aztecs called their chocolate drinks xocolātl (“bitter water”). Probably a pretty accurate description! I wonder why they kept drinking it …

Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this sweet and chocolaty unofficial holiday.

---

---

 

Ideas For How to Celebrate National Chocolate Day

Clearly the day is for eating chocolate. So indulge in your favorite chocolate bar or other chocolate candy.

Try to have chocolate for every meal. And snack, too.

Although we usually avoid donuts for breakfast, today could be an exception. A chocolate-glazed chocolate cake donut (or two) just might hit the spot. A chocolate pudding goes good with lunch. And chocolate milk tastes great with any meal.

To really celebrate right, make your own chocolaty treat(s). Consider one of these recipes:

• No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars: Chocolate with oats and peanut butter. How can you go wrong?! And no-bake to boot.
• Chocolate Truffles: A bit time consuming and probably not for the beginner. But don’t they look devine!
• Chocolate Fudge: Can you ever have too many fudge recipes?!
• Chocolate Pudding: 5 minutes of work plus at least 4 hours of cooling time equals a luscious dessert. You may never buy boxed again!
• Chocolate butter: Simple but irresistible.
• Strawberry Balsamic Chocolates: Who can resist anything strawberry and chocolate?
• Raspberry Filled Molten Chocolate Cupcakes: Ditto for anything raspberry and chocolate.
• Peppermint Hot Fudge Sundaes: Hot fudge is always welcome. Adding peppermint makes it that much better.

 

And just in case you’re afraid of derailing your healthy eating goals, take a look at these healthier but still yummy chocolate recipes.

How will you be celebrating National Chocolate Day?

Do you have any favorite chocolate recipes to share?

 

GoogleAd-NSC-Bottom (text-3)