Tuesday, December 25, 2007

National Chocolate Day--December 28


Easier - Chocolate is a food made from cacao beans. Many candies and desserts contain chocolate. People often give chocolate as a gift on holidays such as Valentine's Day and Halloween.
Harder - Cacao beans come from a large pod that grows on a tropical tree. These beans are roasted, shelled, and ground into a paste. The cacao paste is mixed with sugar and cooked at a high temperature to make chocolate.
People love chocolate. Each American eats almost 12 pounds of chocolate per year. There are many different types of chocolate such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate.
The Mayan people were some of the first to grow large plantations of cacao as early as 600AD. Both the Maya and Aztec people used cacao as a form of money. Early explorers brought chocolate to Europe. It was later brought to North America. During World War II, soldiers got chocolate candy bars as part of their rations.

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