1. On average Americans eat almost a half a pound of chocolate a day.

2. Americans spend $655 million each Valentine's Day on candy, making it the fourth biggest holiday of the year for confectionery purchases, after Halloween, Christmas and Easter (in that order).

3. American women say they'd rather receive chocolate than flowers on Valentine's Day, especially those over the age of 50.

4. The first "chocolate box" was introduced by Richard Cadbury in 1868, when he decorated a candy box with a painting of his young daughter holding a kitten in her arms. Cadbury also introduced the first Valentine's Day candy box.

5. Chocolate comes from cacao beans. Cacao comes from the Aztec word "cacahualt," which stands for "food of the Gods." It was first found in 1591 by Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez in Mexico. After he tasted it, he recognized its commercial use, and sent it back to Spain with recipes on how to convert cacao into chocolate.

6. The cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) is a native only to the dense tropical Amazon forests, although it is now cultivated in many countries.

7. Cocoa trees produce pods that are the size of a pineapple. Inside these pods, there are between 20 and 50 cream-colored seeds. The seeds, called beans, are strung in five chains around a single placenta within the pod. Cacao beans are taken out of the pods, and begin a process of fermentation, that lasts three to nine days. The fermentation is done to rid of germs and reduce the moisture content of the bean. The fermented beans are then shipped to processing plants, where they are converted into chocolate.

8. The bean is first roasted, to develop flavor and aroma. It reduces the moisture content and renders the shell in a loose condition, so that it can be readily removed in the process of winnowing (crushing the bean to separate the fruit from the shell). After the winnowing process, cacao paste is produced, and further processes create cocoa butter. Joining these two together in different processes creates some of the commercial chocolate we eat today.

9. When cocoa powder is combined with cocoa butter and sugar, the "real" dark chocolate is formed. Dark chocolate can be either sweet or bitter-sweet depending on how much sugar is added.

10. Milk chocolate is made when cocoa powder is combined with cocoa butter, sugar, and milk powder. The addition of milk to this combination gives it a brownish color. Each chocolate manufacturer has secret ways in which they combine the substances; thus milk chocolate can vary in color and flavor.

11. Many people might argue that white chocolate is not really chocolate. But the fact is that white chocolate is made by combining cocoa butter, sugar, and milk powder. Since cocoa butter is derived from the cocoa bean, then we can only conclude that real white chocolate is indeed chocolate.