ASK THE EXPERT WITH WHITE RABBIT CHOCOLATIERS
Wed 5th February 2020
For this month’s Ask the Expert we focus on Valentine’s Day! We all associate this annual event with the giving (or receiving!) of sweet treats to the ones we love, so we caught up with Ed Hawkes at White Rabbit Chocolatiers to ask:
Why do we associate chocolate with romance?
Since the time of the Aztecs chocolate has been associated with health and fertility, in fact as Ed told us King Montezuma apparently drank up to 100 cups a day to improve his sexual prowess!
St. Valentine himself dates back to the time of the Romans, however the link between St. Valentine, romance and chocolate didn’t first appear until the publication of the Chaucer novel Parliament of Foules in 1382, when February 14th was associated with the giving of gifts to your beloved.
By the time of Queen Victoria’s reign, when chocolate was available both as a drink and in solid form, Valentine’s Day has become commercialised, and cupid and heart motifs were proving popular. Further developments led to these luxurious (and very expensive) chocolates being packaged into heart- shaped boxes and the final connection was made.
Nowadays chocolatiers, with the backing of science, like to talk about the release of endorphins, which occurs when we consume chocolate, and which emulate the feeling of falling in love (see ‘Ask the Expert’ in Just Beverley Issue 58). So the tale has come full circle and perhaps King Montezuma was right! Keep the tradition alive, keep it White Rabbit. Give chocolate this Valentine’s, and release those happy hormones!
