It’s a staple of Valentine’s Day. On February 14, lovers rush to buy chocolate for … why exactly?
While the origin of Valentine’s Day dates back to the third century, with the death of the Roman priest Valentin on February 14 – even if certain believe that it dates from ancient Rome-, its link with chocolate is much more recent. This association would in fact date from less than 200 years ago, CNN reports.
Originally, chocolate had nothing to do with love. It was consumed as a drink called Xocolatl, or “bitter water”, by the Aztecs. Once imported to Europe in the 1600s, thewe begin to lend it aphrodisiac properties and its consumption was even banned in some convents, the drink “Warming the spirits and the passions”.
Because of its rarity, chocolate is initially reserved for the rich and is associated with a certain form of virility, masculinity. In the XIXe century, everything changes. Chocolate spread and the working class discovered its pleasures – especially the fairer sex.
From there, the connotation of chocolate changes radically. It is now associated with a certain softness and, in general, with femininity. The foundations have been laid: all that was missing was the ingenuity of a man to make chocolate a pledge of love, which we gladly accept on February 14.
A story of hearts … and boxes
In 1861, the British chocolate maker Richard Cadbury had a brilliant marketing idea: he made a heart-shaped box for his chocolates, adds the American media. This box was intended to be reusable and could, for example, subsequently contain an epistolary correspondence between two lovers.
The success was immediate and chocolate makers began to offer all kinds of heart-shaped boxes, decorated with ribbons or lace. Men, for their part, were invited to show their taste by offering their beloved the box that corresponded to them. Since that day, the association between chocolate and love – and therefore with Valentine’s Day – has been definitively established.
From WWI, many chocolate industries reinforced this idea by implementing a marketing strategy that encouraged men to buy chocolate from their wives in order to retain their affection, specifies Radio Canada. The date of February 14 was particularly timely: Valentine’s Day was a good way to sell chocolates between Christmas and Easter, when sales were at half mast.
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