Beginning on November 1st, National Peanut Butter Month gets underway! For all those lover’s of creamy or crunchy peanut butter, it’s a great time to celebrate a favorite taste treat. And for those that are lovers of chocolate and peanut butter combinations it a fun time to explore all the different combinations and taste treats that you can think of all month long!
For those that have kids, it’s a fun time to come up with things to do with your kids - How about make a tasty batch of peanut butter cup cookies (Checkout October blog posts for that recipe)? What about a fun game of which tastes better? Chocolate dipped in peanut butter or peanut butter dipped in chocolate?
While peanut butter has been around since the 1890’s, it first hit commercial status under the brand name of Skippy in the 1920’s. Today, over half of the US peanut crop is turned into this childhood memory. A statistic that I read shows that in 1992 Americans consumed 857 million pounds of this delicious creamy taste treat! For more information on peanut butter, check out www.peanutbutterlovers.com!
Since chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite chocolate combinations, I prevailed upon everyone to put ALL of our chocolate peanut butter combinations on sale in honor of the month’s festivities! So checkout our This Month’s Chocolate Specials page to see which one would suit your craving!
OK, here is a common thing that you hear about eating chocolates - Oh chocolate! That’s got so much caffeine in it, you have to be careful! Well, really? Are you sure about that? I thought that I’d put this one to rest right here, right now, today!
Chocolates absolutely do contain caffeine! Chocolates, which are made from cacao beans, contain small amounts of caffeine but without the same effects of caffeine found in coffee. Now realize, that on average there’s about 75 mg. of caffeine in a standard American cup of coffee. But the amount contained in chocolate depends on the variety and serving size. However, the stimulating effect we get from eating chocolates, which is similar to drinking coffee, is not caffeine. The main ingredient from chocolates that give us a natural high is called theobromine. Theobromine generally has a longer effect on influencing the nervous system compared to coffee. It promotes blood flow and brain activity.
Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and is sometimes referred to as theine in teas. It is a xanthine alkaloid found in the coffee tree’s leaves and beans. Caffeine is found in small doses in cacao and kola nut which is an ingredient in making cola beverages. Chocolate is also considered a stimulant due to its theophylline and theobromine content.
The following is a table of caffeine and theobromine contents found in chocolates:
Caffeine Theobromine
Therefore, while chocolates contain a small amount of caffeine, the stimulating effect we get from eating them isn’t caffeine-based. Instead, it is a natural high from a special chemical found in chocolates. This is certainly stimulating news for anyone who feels good from eating chocolate.
We’ve found that we are getting more and more people interested in sugar free chocolates and sugar free chocolate gifts. The people that are coming and purchasing our sugar-free products are covering a wide spectrum - Some are diabetics, some are weight conscious, others are looking for less carbs and some just want to enjoy their chocolates without the added sugar!
Now our sugarfree chocolate assortment is delicious! But maybe you don’t want a little of everything but rather just a collection of your favorites! So that is why we created the Sugar Free Trio - Three of your favorites in one trio of treats. Simply browse our selection of gourmet sugar free chocolates to find some of your favorites.
You pick the ones that you want and we carefully package them up and have them delivered to your door! And even better, you get to save a little money on buying three at a time! We just thought that might make it an even sweeter deal for you! Enjoy -
