Sensei Talks  

Everyone knows that chocolate is the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift. Men give it to women, women give it to men, parents give it to children and children give it to grandparents. It is the Valentine’s Day gift that anyone can give and everyone loves to receive! While chocolate sales started booming this week, I got to wondering where this tradition started and how it has continued all these years.

Many believe that Valentine’s Day is named for “two among the numerous early Christian martyrs named Valentine”. So what does that have to do with chocolate? Not much. The cocoa connection dates back to ancient history. The first cocoa crops were believed to be grown by Olmec Indians in 1500 BC. Later, Mayans began enjoying cocoa flavored drinks. During the Middle Ages, the Spaniards too started adding cocoa to drinks to give them more flavor. Then in the late 1600’s, chocolate emporiums started opening in Europe. That is where the first solid chocolates and chocolate bars were made and sold. During these developments, chocolate was always known for its aphrodisiac effect and was often associated with love.

Throughout history, chocolate has been associated with good feelings. Many emperors and kings drank cocoa drinks to improve their sexual prowess. Chocolate was also believed to increase a couples luck in love. It wasn’t until many years later that scientists found out that chocolate actually contains phenylethylamine, which is a naturally occurring amino acid that humans release when they are falling in love. Chocolate also contains tryptophan. Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin which is one of the brain chemicals associated with sexual arousal. It is easy to see how chocolate came to be associated with love.

In the 1860’s, a British chocolatier named Richard Cardbury designed and sold the first heart shaped box of chocolate candy for Valentine’s Day. At that time, Valentine’s Day was a day when lovers exchanged heart shaped cards to express their love. The idea of sending chocolate in a heart shaped box has continued for over 150 years and now over 35 million boxes of chocolate are sold each year at Valentine’s Day. They are packaged many different ways with many different decorations today. I recently saw a SpongeBob Squarepants Chocolate Valentine! But any way you package it, I still want my Valentine’s chocolate. I hope the tradition lives on for another 150 years!

- Jennifer