Valentine’s Day is traditionally about celebrating your one great love, but it also comes with a hall pass to indulge in some other great loves, the most notable of which is CHOCOLATE. Chocolate and Valentine’s Day have always been closely linked, something that we can probably thank the great Emperor Montezuma for! He apparently started the association in Aztec times by consuming copious amounts of cocoa beans as a means to ‘fuel’ his romantic liaisons. The links between the cocoa bean and sexual desire are, by today’s standards, somewhat open to debate. If they had to ascribe the aphrodisiac qualities of chocolate to any particular mechanism, Scientists would most likely pinpoint tryptophan (a building block of the happy hormone serotonin, which is also involved in sexual arousal) and also Phenylethylamine, which released in the brain when people fall in love. Some also speculate that the ‘amorous’ effect is due to something called ‘sympathetic magic,’ otherwise known as the law of similarity. This law says that if two things are alike (chocolate and sex are vasodilators) then it might be possible to garner the same effects from them. Either way, one thing is for sure, and that is that chocolate remains the ultimate indulgence, today and everyday, and particularly when shared with a loved one (the Rolo advert was right about one thing). As always, however, quality is everything when it comes to chocolate. Part of the bad reputation that chocolate has is due to the highly manufactured, low cocoa content bars, which have unfortunately contributed to giving chocolate a bad name. Helping to fly the flag for the positive and health-giving potential of chocolate is Chocolatier Lady Cacao, who specialise in single origin, handmade chocolates with no refined sugar. Among their specialities, and bringing new meaning to the term ‘hot date,’ are the expertly crafted and infinitely moorish ‘Mejewels’ (dates stuffed with roasted almonds, and dipped in 85% single origin Solomon Islands chocolate, then sprinkled with Venezuelan Cacao & sea salt). 😍 For Valentines day, you also can’t beat their lip and heart shaped chocolates, each filled with delicious Muscovado caramel. In a culture where nights in are the new going out, and being cosy and comfortable reign supreme, we love the idea of the perfect chocolate filled Valentine’s Night in. It’s a trend that comes off the back of the JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) movement, something which research from Hellofresh has also identified with their findings that the perfect night in comprises dinner at 6:48pm, two hours in front of the TV, and bed by 10:45pm. Perfect! Sponsored by Lady Cacao
