Chocolate Week 2012 - Final Day of Chocolate Week

Sadly, Chocolate Week has come to an end! With our sweet tooth, we are all full from all the chocolates we have eaten over the past week! 
Even though Chocolate Week is over, it doesn't mean we can't talk about it or enjoy and eat chocolate as much as we want!
Chocolicous are still going to be rating different chocolates... look out for some special edition chocolates on Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and many more later on in the year of 2013! 
Its 'au-revior' to 'Chocolate Week 2012' till next year in 2013 - Chocolicoious can't wait already! 

Chocolate Week 2012 - The World Biggest Chocolate Sculpture

Chocolate-lovers need look no further for a place to pay homage to their favourite treat after chocolatiers created a mouth-watering edible sculpture of an ancient Mayan temple. 
Chocolatiers have broken the world record for the largest chocolate sculpture after building a replica of the Kukulcan pyramid based in Chichen Itza in Mexico weighing an incredible 18,239lb - the equivalent of two adult elephants. 
It smashes the previous record for the world's largest chocolate creation set in Italy in 2010 which weighed just 10,736.5lb!

Chocolate Week 2012 - Some Fun Facts About Chocolate!

1.The name chocolate comes from the Aztec word xocalati meaning bitter water. Not surprising, considering they made a drink, by mixing cacao beans with chillies, achiote, cornmeal, and some reports suggest the inclusion hallucinogenic Mushrooms (probably helped to get over the taste).


2. One chocolate chip provides enough food energy for an adult to walk 150 feet. Therefore, it takes about 35 chocolate chips to walk a mile or 875,000 to get you around the world.

3. Terry's of York will produce over 350 million segments of chocolate orange per year and 28,000 Terrys Chocolate Oranges are made from 5 tonnes of chocolate.

4. 17,000 people in Belgium work in the chocolate industry!

5. More than 7 billion chocolate chips are eaten annually and one chocolate chip provides enough food energy for an adult to walk 150 feet. Therefore, it takes about 35 chocolate chips to walk a mile or 875,000 to get you around the world.

6. Chocolate in a blue wrapper won’t sell in Shanghai or Hong Kong, because the Chinese associate blue with death.

7. If the number of Toblerones sold in one year were laid end to end, they would equate to 62,000 Km – equivalent to the circumference of the Earth.

8. Napoleon always carried chocolate with him, which he ate as a pick-me-up 

whenever he needed an energy boost!

9. Almost half the world's chocolate is consumed in America and dark chocolate has more antioxidants than green tea and just as many as blueberries.

10. Chocolate contains over 300 mineral properties that are beneficial to your health.

11. White chocolate really isn't chocolate. It's made from cocoa butter, the substance you get by pressing cocoa beans. Cocoa butter is absent of the cocoa solids used to make chocolate.

12. Dark chocolate has more antioxidants than green tea and just as many as blueberries.

Chocolate Week 2012 - Chocolate Lip Gloss/Balm

Most people see 'Chocolate' as just a Chocolate Bar, but actually, Chocolate can be used in many different ways. 'Hot Chocolate' - melted Chocolate with added milk, 'Chocolate Milk-Shake' - blending chocolate bars, with milk and ice and even Chocolate ICE-CREAM! As well as this, there is also such thing as a Chocolate Lip Balm! In the pictures above, there is a rich chocolate in colour lip balm ready to smother all over your lips. 
As you open the packaging, you can even get (as in the picture on the right hand side) the design of the lip balm outside is incredibly well designed, placed in chocolate place holders (like when you purchase real chocolate at a chocolatier!) 
All of the LipBalms which the Chocolate Addict has tried has made the lips look shiny and gleaming!

As in the picture above, the first lip-balm to try is 'Mocha Choca' which when you open, you get an instant smell of strong coffee beans, almost as if you've walked into a Coffee Shop! The substance is slightly sparkly which I guess is to make your lips look sparkly and a very warm chocolate colour. As you put more on, you can start to taste a weak taste of the coffee beans in your mouth and the substance on your lips feels nice and smooth, and not to thick and strong. However, if you don't like Chocolate Coffee, this flavour lip balm is not for you!
The second lip balm to try is 'Praline Princess' and as you open it you smell an extremely rich smell of dark chocolate. As you put this flavour on your lips you can instantly taste it in your mouth, with a taste of pure chocolate, however is not as nicer feeling as to when you put in on your lips! As you rub in further into your lips eventually it becomes a little bit bitty, but maybe that is because is not a professionally made lip gloss, and was only made for the chocolate effect! The third lip balm flavour is 'Vanilla Fancy', smelling of pure vanilla, very sweet and enticing! Its much thicker than the other substances however when you taste it, it tastes very ordinary like any usual lip balm, which lets me down a little. Although it has a nicer substance Chocolicious is all about the taste!
The fourth flavour is 'Rose Swirl' smells delightful. Flowers and roses, however not chocolate? This one sadly also tastes unlike chocolate, although is extremely tasteful of strawberries! 
Not all Chocolicious but most definitely all of them are DELICIOUS! 

Chocolate Week 2012 - The Health of Chocolate

Most people LOVE chocolate, and for sure Chocolicious certainly does, but is chocolate as bad as everyone says it seems to be? Is it JUST making you gain weight? 

Yes its true, Chocolate which is high in cocoa solids (70% or more) is now recognised as having many qualities that are beneficial to health: 

• Chocolate contains essential trace elements and nutrients such as iron, calcium and potassium, and vitamins A, B1, C, D, and E. 
• Cocoa is also the highest natural source for Magnesium. Magnesium deficiency is linked with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, joint problems and pre-menstrual tension (PMT or PMS). 

There are benefits in Chocolate for both men and women:

• The high Magnesium content of Chocolate is beneficial for the Cardiovascular System and hypertension.
• It's a pre-menstrual drop in progesterone levels which is responsible for the violent mood swings familiar to so many women (and their families), adding magnesium to a sufferers diet has been proved to increase pre-menstrual progesterone levels, thus helping alleviate the symptoms. 

• Researchers found eating 100g of dark chocolate each day for 15 days lowered blood pressure in the 15 person-study.
• The University of L'Aquila team also found the body's ability to metabolise sugar - a problem for people with diabetes - was improved. But eating the same quantities of white chocolate did not have an effect, the researchers said.
• Dark chocolate contains antioxidants, but also a lot of fat and calories."People who want to add some chocolate to their diet need to subtract an equivalents amount of calories by cutting back on other foods to avoid weight gain."
• He said other foods containing flavanols, such as tea and wine, have a similar effect on blood pressure.
• People with diabetes can eat dark chocolate like everyone else in moderation.

"However, we would still recommend a balanced low fat, salt and sugar diet that includes starchy carbohydrates and plenty of fruit and vegetables combined with regular exercise to help people with diabetes control their condition.
The benefits of eating chocolate are likely to be outweighed by the disadvantages as chocolate is high in sugar and fat."

Chocolate is made from plants, which means it contains many of the health benefits of dark vegetables. These benefits are from flavonoids, which act as antioxidants. Antioxidants protect the body from aging caused by free radicals, which can cause damage that leads to heart disease. Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants (nearly 8 times the number found in strawberries). Flavonoids also help relax blood pressure through the production of nitric oxide, and balance certain hormones in the body.

Wow!! Chocolate can be good for you after all.... HEALTHY AND CHOCOLICIOUS!! 

Chocolate Week 2012 - The Worlds Biggest Chocolate Bar in the World!

The Grand Candy factory in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, the tiny country sandwiched between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran and Georgia has just produced the World's biggest Chocolate Bar. The bar contains all natural ingredients and 70% is coco beans from Ghana. The Chocolate Bar is 224inches, 110 inches wide, 10inches thick and weighs the grand total of 9,702 pounds! 
The factory owner, Karen Vardanyan said that the chocolate bar was produced to mark the 10th anniversary of the company and said it will be divided up and handed out on Tuesday 16th October! The thought of tasting the massive record breaking chocolate bar makes is unimaginable! 
Would it be 'Chocolicious?' 

Watch this video below to find out some more information and to watch it being made!

Chocolate Week 2012

For Chocoholics and for everyone who adores chocolate, this week is specially dedicated to chocolate... its 'Chocolate Week 2012' from Monday 8th October until Sunday 14th October! Throughout the week there is different types of exciting event happening to celebrate. From learning how to prepare your own chocolate, learning how to taste chocolate, demonstrations of making chocolate in York (where Rowntree's, Terry's Chocolate Orange, Smarties and KitKat originally came from), visiting 'Chocolate Unwrapped' in Covent Garden or even special deals to visit Cadbury's Chocolate World in Birmingham! As well as this, Salon Du Chocolat in Paris are hosting a 'chocolate-themed fashion show' while listening to music of live performances and gorging to the world's finest chocolates.

For more information, check out the 'Chocolate Week 2012' website by clicking on the link below:

http://www.chocolateweek.co.uk/

In addition to all of this excitement, Chocolicious is going to be celebrating too! Keep an eye on the Chocolicious Blog as there will be some interesting daily updates, which will include unusual facts about chocolate, the history of chocolate and even some videos! 

Next week is definitely going to be thrilling, yummy and CHOCOLICIOUS!