On Valentine’s Day this year it is expected that there will be more than $1,590,000 spent on heart shaped boxes of chocolate. There will likely be more than 36 million boxes of chocolate sold. Giving Chocolate for Valentines Day is ranked only number two on the list of Valentine’s Day gifts…just behind roses.

So how is it that giving chocolate as a Valentine gift became a tradition? It is rather hard to say but commercial candy making developed during the early nineteenth century with the advancement of automation and the discovery of sugar beet juice.

The human craving for sweets can probably be attributed to the first caveman who robbed a bee hive. The famous Shakespearean quote, “Sweets to the sweet” is one that often accompanies boxes of chocolates or other candies given to women by the men who love them on Valentine’s Day.

From Wikipedia.org: In the second half of the twentieth century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States, usually from a man to a woman. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates. In the 1980s, the industry began to promote Valentine’s Day as an occasion for giving jewelry.

Humans love sweets of all kinds but they especially love chocolate. The rest of the world loves chocolate but Americans REALLY love chocolate. As a matter of fact the very first commercial chocolate factory was built in New England twenty years before the American Independence was declared and the American Revolutionary War was fought.

Americans love chocolate and they will consume more than 3 BILLION pounds of it this year. Chocolate will be the number one selling candy this Valentines Day season.

Coming in second are those little pastel colored hearts that are inscribed with love messages. These little hearts are called “conversation hearts” and have such inscriptions as “Luv U” or “Go Away” printed on them.

Get your special someone a Valentine’s Day Gift Basket filled with all things wonderful at:

GourmetGiftBaskets.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Valentine Gifts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.