10 things you didn't know about Chocolate

With Cool Earth in talks with the world's finest chocolate makers to sell the cacao produced by the communities in Peru. Cool Earth have discovered 10 fantatsic facts about chocolate. 

• Chocolate really is the "Food of the gods" - that's what Theobroma cacao, the scientific name for the Cacao Tree means.

• There are 5-6 million cacao farmers worldwide and a further 45 million people who depend on cacao for their livelihoods

• The crop from one cacao tree over an entire year only produces enough to make half a kilogram of chocolate.

• No rainforest, no chocolate - All cacao grows within a narrow band around the equator and needs 2 meters of rain each year and a temperature of 21ºC to 32ºC - conditions you only get in the shade of a rainforest canopy.

•  The first pod of a cacao is produced after three years and contains 40-45 cacao beans. It takes 135-270 beans to produce one pound of chocolate. 

• Over 1.5 million creme eggs are produced each day in the UK which would use up the entire annual production of 75,000 cacao trees.

• Every year 3.5 million tonnes of cacao is produced.

• Cacao beans were used as money in ancient times. A horse could be bought for 10 cacao beans.

• Before 1847 all cacao was made into a chocolate drink. The world's first chocolate bar was made by Joseph Fry in Bristol, England.

• The world's most expensive chocolate bar was a Wispa that was covered in edible gold. It was sold in Selfridges for £961.48  

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