Oh, fun!

I have guesses. Let us know when to post those. Maybe after everyone has checked in, so as not to unduly influence anyone with my most-probably-wrong first thoughts! ;)

Cynthia

Hmmmm, I think I know #2 and maybe #4.

Annette

Interestingly, #2 and #4 are not the same place!!

{{gwi:597374}}
The scientific name, Theobroma, means "food of the deities". The fruit, called a cacao pod, is ovoid, or 6"12 in. long and 3"4 in. wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighing about 1 lb. when ripe. Cacao trees are small, understory trees that need rich, well-drained soils. They naturally grow within 20 degrees of either side of the equator because they need about 2000 millimeters of rainfall a year, and temperatures in the range of 21 to 32 °C. Cacao trees cannot tolerate a temperature lower than 15 °C (59 °F). I think I'd thrive in that kind of weather, too.

Nancy.

I went on a very cool and informative tour of the Theo Chocolate factory in Seattle a few years ago, where I probably heard the answers to 2, 3 and 4. All I remember for sure is that the cacao trees grow in nice warm places. I was able to have a smart moment during the tour when the guide asked if anyone knew the scientific name of the tree. Too bad you didn't ask that question, Nancy. :-)

Anything I have to contribute will be only a guess at this point, so I'll wait for more clues.

TM

Yep, if I'm right two different places for #2 and #4. Need lots of clues for the others tho....

Annette

Now, that would have been an interesting tour!! Did you get free samples at the end? Yum.

James Bruce (14 December 1730 - 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile. His fine presence (he was 6 foot 4 inches high), his knowledge of Ge'ez, his excellence in sports, his courage, resource and self-esteem, all told in his favor among a people who were in general distrustful of all foreigners. He stayed in Ethiopia for two years, gaining knowledge which enabled him subsequently to present a perfect picture of Ethiopian life. Bruce's travels and discoveries inspired the founders of the British African Association (1788) in their efforts to promote exploration to discover the course of the Niger and the city of Timbuktu. Several of Bruce's drawings were presented to King George III and are in the royal collection at Windsor Castle.

What notice as I read the above, cut and pasted form Wikipedia is the mix of spelling - traveller and favor - English and American - not sweet!!

Nancy.

I have guesses for all except the last one. Well, I have a guess for that, but it has nothing to back it up. Never heard of Gower, but that is not surprising. Bet you will come up with a good tale for #5!

Cynthia

Checking in very late today. I have a few ideas about answers though no firm knowledge about any of them.

DH may be related to the James Bruce. He has a vague memory of info about chocolate being part of a museum we visited in Scotland.

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

["For this was on St. Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."]

This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381. (When they were married eight months later, they were each only 15 years old).

Love, indeed. Readers have uncritically assumed that the author was referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day; however, mid-February is an unlikely time for birds to be mating in England. Henry Ansgar Kelly has pointed out that he could be referring to May 3, the celebration in the liturgical calendar of Valentine of Genoa, an early bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307. Jack B. Oruch says that date for the start of Spring has changed since the authors time because of the precession of equinoxes and the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The date would correspond to the modern 23 February, a time when some birds have started mating and nesting in England. And now you see why I didn't go with the origins of the day!!!

Nancy.

Our 3rd discoverer, potentially of chocolate is Vasco de Gama.
He is one of the most famous and celebrated explorers from the Discovery Ages, being the first European to reach India by sea. This discovery was very significant and paved the way for the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia. The route meant that the Portuguese would not need to cross the highly disputed Mediterranean nor the dangerous Arabian Peninsula, and that the whole voyage would be made by sea.

After decades of sailors trying to reach India with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks, Gama landed in Calicut on 20 May 1498. Reaching the legendary Indian spice routes unopposed helped the Portuguese Empire improve its economy that, until Gama, was mainly based on trades along Northern and coastal West Africa. These spices were mostly pepper and cinnamon at first, but soon included other products, all new to Europe which led to a commercial monopoly for several decades.

Yum, Portuguese chocolate!!

Nancy.

Okay, here are my guesses.

1. A Hershey's
2. C. Central America
3. B. Cortes
4. Debating between A and C, but will go with A, West Africa
5. C Chaucer

1. A. Hershey's
2. C Central America
3. B Cortez
4. B Brazil
5. C Chaucer

I'm going to go with these out-and-out guesses.

1. C Lindt
2. C Central America
3. B Cortez
4. C Brazil
5. B John Gower, whoever he was.

Yes, Nancy, we definitely got samples, and bought more on our way out.

TM

AAhh, Bobbie and Cyn - really good answers, but your patriotism is blinding you!!

Nancy.

Thought I had posted the above a while ago - sorry.
TM - John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes. Hmmmm, morals? Doesn't sound like a love bacchanalia!!

Nancy,

Ha-I just figured Americans were more commercial and Hershey probably saw a way to make a buck. ;)

So, second try...Cadbury. Not sure the Swiss are all that into Valentine's.

Cynthia

Here's mine
1. C Lindt
2. C Central America
3. B. Hernan Cortes
4. A. West Africa
5. ???????????

Annette

Annette - 3 out of 5 ain't bad!! Cynthia & TM, many years ago I dated a Swiss guy. He said the mountains in Switzerland were great for depression - if you got depressed, you just took an extra step backwards. He was possibly the least romantic man I have ever known!!

Nancy.

Revised answers
1. B Cadbury
2. C Central America
3. B Cortez
4. A West Africa
5. C Chaucer

OK, it's clear that Nancy is steering me away from Lindt, so I'll go with Cadbury.

1. C Cadbury
2. C Central America
3. B Cortez
4. C Brazil
5. B John Gower, whoever he was.

TM

Bobbie - gold star and a box of chocolates for you!!! Bang on!

1. In 1868 Richard Cadbury produced a heart shaped chocolate box to celebrate Valentines day and this became an instant success. He personally designed the boxes with the idea being after you had enjoyed the chocolates you would keep the box to store mementos in such as love letters and gifts. The boxes grew increasingly more and more elaborate until World War II when sugar became rationed. This resulted in Valentine day celebrations being scaled back. Today however, More than 35 million heart shaped boxes will be sold around the world on Valentines day.

2. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico and Central America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC by the Olmecs in south central Mexico. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Mayans and the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl , a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.

3. The first European contact with chocolate came when Montezuma (then tlatoani of Tenochtitlan) introduced Hernán Cortés, a Spanish conquistador, to xocolatl in the 16th century. Antonio de Solís, Philip IV's official Chronicler of the Indies, described Montezuma customarily taking a chocolate beverage after meals, as part of a sumptuous daily ritual:

He had Cups of Gold, and Salvers of the same; and sometimes he drank out of Cocoas [i.e., coconut shells], and natural Shells, very richly set with Jewels.[...] When he had done eating, he usually took a Kind of Chocolate, made after the Manner of the Country, that is, the Substance of the Nut beat up with the Mill till the Cup was filled more with Froth than with Liquor; after which he used to smoak Tobacco perfum'd with liquid Amber.

4. Roughly two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in West Africa, with 43% sourced from Côte d'Ivoire, where child labor is a common practice to obtain the product. According to the World Cocoa Foundation, some 50 million people around the world depend on cocoa as a source of livelihood. In the UK, most chocolatiers purchase their chocolate from them, to melt, mold and package to their own design.

5. Jack B. Oruch writes that the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer.

So there you go!! For Bobbie:

For TM, Annette and Cynthia:

A for effort.

Thanks for playing, see you all next week!!

Nancy.

Two stars seems about right. Three right out of five (counting the Cadbury gimme) still beats the odds for pure guessing, though not by much.

Thanks for the weekend fun, Nancy.

TM

Thanks for the fun and the big pushes towards the right snswers. Off to have a chocolate drink.