Chocolate is linked with childhood and innocence, you’d think. Think again. Chocolate is naughty. Très très naughty indeed, if history isn’t but legend. Juliette Binoche revealed the lust-inducing aspect of chocolate in the film Chocolat. But the Maya and Inca chiefs knew of cacao’s aphrodisiacal virtues 1500 years ago.

A visit to the Brussels Chocolate Museum or its mini counterpart at the annual Paris Salon du Chocolat takes you on a whirlwind waltz through the sensuous history of chocolate. It is only then, you understand why chocolate has been used since time immemorial to seduce one’s valentine.
The Mayas and Aztecs discovered the cacao tree and christened this heavenly creature the Tree of Paradise. Thus, its Latin name Theobrom Cacao (food of the gods), derived from the Mayan word Cacao meaning God Food. Cacao, from which chocolate is made, was originally consumed as a beverage which they called the divine drink and consecrated to the gods. Of course, ‘Paradise,’ ‘Divine’ and ‘God’ were then inextricably linked with mystical aphrodisiacal qualities.So when chocolate was discovered by the Spanish Conquistadors and introduced to Europe by Cortez, it was natural that the Spanish, and eventually the rest of the world, continued to associate it with love.

Indeed, the Countess Du Barry, courtesan and mistress of Louis XV, insisted that her lovers drink chocolate, so that they could keep up with her, whilst the Marquis de Sade exploited this liaison dangeureuse between chocolate and vice. Casanova, who considered chocolate more stimulating than champagne and called it the ‘elixir of love.’
In 1624, Viennese professor Johan Franciscus Rauch condemned chocolate as a most wicked victual that incited passions and urged monks not to drink it. The Bishop of San Cristobal de la Casas, Mexico, utterly outraged that ladies fortified themselves with the aphrodisiacal hot chocolate during high mass in the house of God, banned the drink. The ladies left the church and the Bishop met an untimely end by drinking chocolate laced with poison...

Never, never separate a woman from her chocolate. Research reveals that women associate chocolate with sensuality and seduction. Apparently men do too. It is claimed that fashion and beauty products made of cocoa or looking, smelling or tasting of chocolate apparently render women more sensual to the opposite sex.... In a romantic moment, a woman may wink at the object of her admiration with an eye painted in YSL chocolate eyeshadow and pout with a mouth invitingly coated in Dior chocolate lipstick. Her Anick Goutal chocolate perfume will ensure the loved one is lured by the scent of a woman and she will have to count but seconds on her Chanel chocolate bar watch before he slips onto her finger that Boucheron wedding band in chocolate gold. This is “What Women Want.”
Chocolate contains mood lifting agents phenylethylamine and serotonin, both of which occur naturally in the human brain and which are released when we experience feelings of love, passion and lust. When we eat chocolate, phenylethylamine and serotonin are secreted into the system, which produces similar euphoric effects to those associated with being in love. Thus, technically, chocolate isn’t an aphrodisiac but eating chocolate does make you feel good and can ‘mimic’ the feeling of being in love.