The Unexpectedly Recent History Of Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Nothing screams "romance" quite like a box of chocolate-covered strawberries. And, they make a good gift for almost any occasion. But what exactly is the story behind these decadent treats? Just how long have they been around?
You'd be forgiven if you thought chocolate-covered strawberries were around for a century or so, considering just how old both chocolate and strawberries are. The Smithsonian Magazine tells us that chocolate (or at least cocoa beans) has been around for 2,000 years, and possibly even longer. Perhaps the most famous example of chocolate in the ancient world was the Aztec's refining of cocoa beans into a bitter drink. As chocolate gained a foothold in Europe and Spain in later centuries, it was seen as a luxurious treat, seen as having both nutritional and even aphrodisiac properties.
Strawberries also were seen as symbols of "passion" during the Medieval period, representing sexual temptation to divine perfection (via Tradition in Action). In fact, the strawberry was seen as such a beautiful symbol of perfection and divinity that artists and sculptures included strawberries in everything from religious paintings to altars. It would make sense, then, that someone would have combined the decadence of chocolate and the purity of the strawberry into one "heavenly" treat.
The real inventor of the chocolate-covered strawberry was no monk or English aristocrat though, but a shop owner in 1960s Chicago.
Chocolate-covered strawberries came out of Chicago
It's 1960s Chicago, and somewhere in the bustling city, lies a little gourmet shop, and no one realizes that within its kitchen, candy history is being made using nothing but chocolate and strawberries.
According to Chocolate, the story that goes a woman by the name of Lorraine Lorusso ran a small gourmet candy shop called the "Stop N' Shop" in Chicago sometime in the 1960s. Lorusso, perhaps in a mood to make a new product, decided to temper some of the gourmet chocolate she sold in her shop and dipped some fresh strawberries into the chocolate. After allowing the chocolate to harden and form a shell around the berries, Lorusso then displayed the strawberries for her customers. Perhaps this was the cause of the success and rise of the chocolate-covered strawberries.
Oddly enough, despite being the inventor of one of the most famous chocolate treats in the world, very little information can be found regarding Lorraine Lorusso or her "Stop N' Shop" gourmet store. Any information one does find simply retells the same story about how Lorusso invented the strawberries. One can take comfort, however, in the fact that Lorusso's creation has continued to remain a delicious treat for decades.
What exactly is it about strawberries dipped in chocolate that made Lorusso's creation so incredibly popular all these years later?
A combination of flavor and texture
If you take a bite of any kind of chocolate-covered strawberry, how exactly would you describe it? Would you first note the firm, solid outer shell of the chocolate compared to the squishy, soft juicy strawberry underneath? Would you note the sweetness of the chocolate against the somewhat tangier profile of the strawberry? It's this contrast of textures and tastes, some argue, that makes us love chocolate-covered strawberries.
According to Good Food, one of the main reasons we enjoy these little morsels is because we like the natural texture. The article argues that people tend to like "crunchy things with a soft interior," which in this case refers to the hard chocolate shell that shatters when you bite into it and the soft berry under it. Some have argued that one of the main appeals of the chocolate strawberry is that it's an aphrodisiac (recall the medieval artists and European aristocrats had the same belief), but medical and nutritional professionals argue that such an idea is bogus.
While eating chocolate-covered strawberries may or may not increase your libido, SF Gate states that dark chocolate-covered strawberries may actually be relatively healthy for you. Dark chocolate is considered to be healthier than milk chocolate thanks to its benefits towards heart health (via Cleveland Clinic) while strawberries are full of vitamin C. It won't hurt to have just one, right?