Click here to view our Chocolate Wave presentation all about chocolate!

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• Great chocolate manufacturers choose their cocoa beans
  in the same way as a wine maker chooses grape varieties.

• Chocolate was originally considered a medicinal product or drug and under this guise, traveled from one court to another throughout Europe. Today, traditional Mexican healers, curanderos, still prescribe chocolate for bronchitis.

• Rich, creamy and utterly decadent, fine chocolates have a good balance between sweet and bitter, and a long complex finish that is comparable to a fine wine.

• The Aztec elite did not drink their chocolate until the end
  of a banquet. It was served along with smoking tubes of tobacco, similar to after dinner brandy and cigars

• Recent research shows that pleasurable reactions to chocolate don't necessarily lead to over-consumption at all. In fact, paying attention to the senses when eating chocolate, coupled with background information on chocolate, can bring added pleasure and reduce the urge to over-indulge.

• Years ago, when harvesting was over, a dance was performed on the cocoa beans which had been put out to dry in the sun. This tradition continues today in regions of Central and South America.

• Chocolate is packed with antioxidants which may reduce the risk of developing cancer and heart disease.

• Read through the winning entries from the 2004 and 2005 Coquitlam Public Library Poetry of Chocolate Contests! See previous winning entries from 2004 and 2003.