World Chocolate Day 2011

How should we mark "World Chocolate Day" this year?

First, let's see what your Chocolate Priestess could find out about the history of the day itself.

According to the folks at Chocolate World, the day began in 2003.  The date was chosen because it is the birthday of the founder of the fun holiday, Valeria Lo Iacono.  This "fact" is repeated numerous places around the Internet yet I coudn't determine who Valeria Lo Iacono really is or find evidence that she has done what these websites claim.  The most famous Valeria Lo Iacono I can find is a belly dancer or a professor at a Cardiff university.

So history isn't really be satisfied by these "facts."

Let's instead thing about chocolate's place in the world, shall we?

According to the World Atlas of Chocolate 16 of the top 20 nations who consume the most chocolate per person are European. Unfortunately no study or date is cited for this information.

Dr. Shock's website offers some interesting graphs about chocolate consumption in 2007.  In it the nation with the greatest consumption rate is Ireland and the USA ranks 12th. 

That's from 2007 though, has chocolate consumption changed in 2011?  I couldn't find updated statistics for us yet from any reliable source.

Finally if you are looking for chocolate you might like this Lonely Planet article that lists what it calls the "World's Top Choc Spots." Anyone want to fund me to go explore these places and report back to you all?

Ultimately though I'm betting most of you are just going to each chocolate today, right, to celebrate.  So tell me where did the chocolate you ate today come from.



Various news sources in the past year report that Chocolate is currently a 50+ BILLION dollar industry.

Comments

Great post! Thanks for sharing. Happy Labor Day!
Hope your Labor Day is going well, Christine.
Kim Bee said…
I ate huge amounts of chocolate so does that count as celebrating? I think it does. I just finished M+M's now, had some chocolate covered banana bread and some chocolate milk. Overkill you think? Lol
That works for me, Kim. Thanks for reading and commenting.