Celebrate National Chocolate Week With Branded Chocolates

National Chocolate Week - possibly the best week of the year, right? - starts today. With that in mind, we wanted to highlight why, exactly, chocolate deserves a whole week of celebration!

Where Did Chocolate Come From? The Sweet History Revealed

Chocolate can be traced all the way back to the ancient Mayan, as well as even earlier to the ancient Olmecs in Southern Mexico. However, what they ate wasn't the same as the chocolate we know and love today - rather, it was a bitter beverage, often drank with chilli, maize, and fruit during religious ceremonies and enjoyed by the wealthy.

The Aztecs loved and valued the cacao bean so highly that they actually used it as currency during the height of their civilisation. Not only did the Aztecs use chocolate as currency but they also used cocoa for therapeutic purposes. Cocoa butter, for example, was used to treat burns and injuries.

It wasn't until 1847 when the first edible chocolate bar was created and guess where it was made - the UK! The first chocolate bar was created in 1847 by Joseph Fry and his son when they pressed a paste of cocoa powder and sugar into a bar shape.

Using Promotional Chocolate To Tingle Your Customers' Tastebuds

Did you know: eating chocolate can improve your mood, making you feel calmer and more content? This is because chocolate stimulates the production of endorphins which are chemicals in the brain that create feelings of pleasure. As if it couldn't get any better, a recent study published by Medical News Today suggests chocolate can lower cholesterol levels, prevent cognitive decline and even reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems!

Also! Technically speaking, chocolate is a fruit, as it's made from beans that are grown on the fruit tree Theobroma Cacao. So it must count as one of our five-a-day, right?

With all this in mind, sending promotional chocolate to your customers and your staff could certainly have a positive impact on your company's branding, as well as the health of your recipients, too.

Read on for our edit of some of our most popular branded chocolate bars and promotional chocolates - and don't blame us if you find yourself with a sugar craving!

15g Baton Chocolate Bars

These snack-sized promotional chocolate bars offer a generously-sized print area for your full-colour design to really draw attention to your branding. Made from delicious Fair Trade milk chocolate, they're ideal for event giveaways and more!

Custom Printed Dairy Milk Chocolate Bars 110g

Voted as the UK's favourite chocolate bar, what better way to impress your clients than with a custom-printed Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar?

These classic promotional chocolate bars are available in three tempting sizes: 110g, 360g and 850g.

38mm Embossed Chocolate Coins

Embrace your inner Aztec with promotional chocolate coins, featuring your company branding embossed on the gold foil for completely unique milk chocolate currency.

Maxi Chocolate Beanies Eco Pots

The beanies are available in a range of colours and are contained within new and exciting eco-friendly compostable pots, which make the perfect smart packaging!

More Fun Facts About Chocolate

To understand why there is a whole week dedicated to chocolate we need to look at some interesting facts. We have gathered some of our favourite facts about the delicious product that is chocolate - how's that for food for thought?

White chocolate isn't actually chocolate. This is because it doesn't contain cocoa solids or chocolate liquor so technically it's not even chocolate.
The blood in the film Psycho's famous shower scene was actually chocolate syrup - not quite so terrifying.
People who are allergic to chocolate might not actually be allergic to chocolate but instead cockroaches. According to the Food and Drug Administration, there are around eight insect parts typically found in a bar of chocolate.
The scientific name for the Theobroma Cacao, the tree that chocolate comes from, means 'food of the gods'.
It takes 400 cocoa beans to make one pound of chocolate.
There is a rare fourth kind of chocolate: blond chocolate.
The film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was funded by Quaker Oats to promote its new Wonka Bar candy.
Each cacao tree produces approximately 2,500 beans and only produces quality beans for 25 years of its life.

It's not surprising that the delicious treat has a whole week dedicated to its existence. So, with the national chocolate week starting today why don't you get involved with some mouth-watering promotional chocolate products?