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International Chocolate Day

Food · September 13

International Chocolate Day is about chocolate itself, from cacao beans to bars, and the many ways people in the United States and elsewhere enjoy it.

International Chocolate Day falls on Monday, September 13, 2027. That is 321 days away.

Chocolate starts as a bean. Cacao pods grow on the trunk and branches of the cacao tree, and the seeds inside are fermented, dried and roasted before they taste anything like a candy bar. The day is marked in the United States as well as other countries, and it gives the whole process a little attention.

What comes out of the roaster is ground into a paste called chocolate liquor, which has no alcohol in it despite the name. That paste can be pressed to separate cocoa butter from cocoa solids, then recombined with sugar and sometimes milk. Dark chocolate keeps more of the cacao, milk chocolate adds milk, and white chocolate is made from cocoa butter without the solids, which is why it tastes so different from the other two.

Most people mark the day the obvious way, with a piece of something good. Some go further and set up a small tasting at home: a few squares of different darkness, a glass of water between them, and a slow bite that lets each one melt instead of being chewed. The flavors change more than you would expect. One bar might lean fruity, another nutty or smoky.

Chocolate also cooks well beyond dessert. It turns up in mole sauces, in chili, and in hot drinks that are closer to its older history as a beverage than to anything in a wrapper.

A bar that has turned pale or streaky is usually just showing bloom, where fat or sugar has risen to the surface. It looks tired but is generally fine to melt into a batch of brownies.

Ways to celebrate

• Try a side-by-side tasting of dark, milk and white chocolate.
• Let a square melt slowly and note the flavors you pick up.
• Make hot chocolate from cocoa powder, milk and a little sugar.
• Stir a bit of dark chocolate into a pot of chili.
• Share a favorite chocolate with a friend or coworker.

Dates

All national days on September 13

Also on September 13

• National Peanut Day
• Uncle Sam Day
• Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day
• Positive Thinking Day

Categories: Food days