At Chocolate Pizza Company, we just love the holidays. We suppose that isn’t really much of a surprise, considering our delicious selection of holiday Chocolate Pizza pies and holiday confections and candies. From Christmas and Valentine’s Day to St. Patrick’s Day and Easter, we offer tons of holiday-themed desserts designed to make the holidays even more festive!
Have you ever wondered how the relationship between chocolate and the holidays began? Join us as we take a look at the history of chocolate and how it came to walk hand-in-hand with celebrations around the world.
A History of Chocolate: The Super-Short Version
Nearly 4,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Mesoamerica (which includes today’s central to southern Mexico, El Salvador, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica) were making chocolate fermented drinks out of the fruits of their native cacao trees. It wasn’t until Christopher Columbus encountered the cacao bean on his fourth mission in 1502 that the knowledge of what would soon become one of the world’s favorite delicacies would make its way west.
Before the 1800s, chocolate would usually be made into a drink. In the 1840s, however, the British chocolate firm J.S. Fry & Sons introduced the world’s first chocolate bar. With that inspiration from J.S. Fry & Sons, well-known candy company Cadbury’s would follow suit with their very own chocolate bars and candies in 1850s. Cadbury’s has been credited with the creation of the chocolate Easter egg and those ubiquitous Valentine’s Day chocolate boxes. By the 1900s, these holiday chocolates would become must-haves in American homes.
Celebratory Chocolate
The Aztecs, however, were the first to use chocolate in celebrations, such as weddings – perhaps because it contains phenethylamine, a substance that increases in our brains when we fall in love. This also may be why chocolate is so closely related to the holiday of love: Valentine’s Day. Germany and France were the first to introduce solid chocolate Easter eggs to the world. These celebratory eggs’ popularity soared throughout Europe as well as the world – by the 1960s, Easter eggs had become customary.
Halloween was another holiday to follow suit. Halloween is based on the Celtic festival of Samhain in which it was believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets at night. The Celts would traditionally leave treats and gifts for spirits on their front steps to ensure a bountiful crop; however, children would dress up as these spirits and steal the candy. Resourceful adults would soon incorporate pacifying thieving children by exchanging a treat for an “ask.” In winter, Christmas advent calendars traditionally held chocolates within their 24 individual boxes, delivering a delicious daily treat for kids as they waited for the much-anticipated December 25.
From Hanukkah to Diwali, chocolate has become part of the specialness of just about every major holiday celebrated all over the world. And it is not hard to see why; what started back in 1900 B.C.E. as a fermented drink has become a world entirely to itself – chocolate is part of our lives to stay!
Chocolate at Chocolate Pizza Company
If you’re looking for amazing treats for your holiday celebrations, Chocolate Pizza Company has got your back. All our Swiss-style chocolate is made with our exclusive recipe that lovingly blends English toffee that’s handcrafted from a 100-year-old recipe. The result is a silky mouthfeel and a melt-in-your-mouth experience that you’ll only find here! Chocolate Pizza Company treats make terrific desserts for holiday parties, and wonderful gifts that can be sent to loved ones near and far!
