2. In the seventeenth century the historian and jurist Antonio de León Pinelo published a gbook titled Question moral: si el chocolate quebranta el ayuno eclesiástico (A Moral Question: Whether Chocolate Breaks the Ecclesiastical Fast) in which he concluded that chocolate didn't break the religious fast because it was taken in liquid form. Chocolate was therefore very much in demand as the perfect food for Lent.
3. For centuries chocolate was taken in liquid form, mixed with water. Cow's milk tended to be consumed only by ailing people, under medical prescription.
4. The cacao tree only flourishes between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn and is especially susceptible to disease. It is therefore very difficult and expensive to cultivate.
5. Economists warn that in fifty years' time, chocolate will be more expensive than caviar. It is a matter of supply and demand: production can't be increased but there are more and more consumers every year.
6. In the eighteenth century Madame de Sévigné wrote a letter from Versailles in which she informed a friend that one of the ladies at the court had consumed so much chocolate that she'd given birth to a black baby.
7. Chocolate was introduced into France by Spanish infantas who had married French kings. One of them, Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, brought her own chocolate-making chambermaid - known as "the grinder" ( la molinera) - to Versailles.
8. White chocolate is a derivative that does not contain cocoa but only cocoa butter. It is therefore high in saturated fat and not as healthy as true chocolate.
9. Switzerland is the most chocolate-loving country. On average, every Swiss citizen consumes 11.5 kilos a year. England comes second with a figure of 10.5 kilos per person per year.
10. Chocolatiers have a saying: "Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth is lying."