Why Chocolate for Valentine’s?

It’s almost one of THE busiest days for a  chocolatier in the year and already one of the busiest weeks. VALENTINE’S DAY!  If you weren’t already aware Honeydukes has extra long hours this week for those that want to owl my aunt for anything. ANYWAY

Why Chocolate on Valentine’s Day?

Apparently it all goes back to ancient times and the belief that chocolate can help you in romancing someone.  Something about some of the chemicals in chocolate kicks off chemicals in your brain that makes you feel good. The science behind it is kinda muddy and unclear but, that’s the START OF IT. 

And then cue the Victorians and their love of romance and decadence, and chocolate is considered a luxury. Well, maybe not the stuff in chocolate frogs but the really fancy good high end stuff sure is!  That stuff’s tricky and expensive to make! So it shows that you are lavishing the good stuff on the one you love.  Kings and queens would indulge in it when it was too expensive for the lower class to enjoy it.

And then as Valentines became more popular, some of the muggle fathers of modern chocolate making had ideas! These are the men that brought chocolate to the masses by finding ways to produce it  faster and cheaper. Richard Cadbury, a British muggle chocolate maker from the late 1800’s was the first person to see how the holiday was developing and put chocolates in heart shaped boxes with flowers on them. Milton Hershey, an American chocolatier in the early 1900’s invented what he called the Hershey’s Kiss, lil drops of chocolate that were easy to carry about and eat. They got called kisses due to the sound of the machine as it dropped them on the conveyor belt. 

And lastly you have Clara Stover, LOOK ITS A WOMAN, and another American chocolatier, who with her husband Russel’s help started the Russel Stover candy company and they produced so many specialty chocolate boxes!  All dressed up fancy in satins and lace heart shaped boxes that sold millions!

But  basically, it was the chocolate makers that saw a holiday and just.. hopped onto that bandwagon and went BUY OUR STUFF, we made it fit this holiday. And that’s  really why chocolate is linked to Valentine’s day.