**July 7th – Chocolate Day**

Many chocolate lovers may already know: July 7th is Chocolate Day. It is a special day when we can celebrate our love for this sweet delight even more intensely. This special occasion was supposedly created by French chocolatiers in the 1990s. In the USA, July 7th has been officially recognized as Chocolate Day since 2003.

But why choose a date when there is a high chance that chocolate will melt in the hot summer temperatures? The choice of this date is linked to a historical event that took place almost 500 years ago. On July 7th, 1550, a novel Mayan chocolate drink was allegedly introduced by Dominican monks at the Spanish court. These monks had brought the recipe back from a trip to South America.

According to legend, this chocolate drink quickly became popular among the Spanish nobility and soon spread to other European royal courts. Thus, July 7th, 1550, was marked as the beginning of chocolate's triumphant rise in Europe. This date symbolically represents the start of the ongoing chocolate craze in the Western world.

So, celebrate Chocolate Day on July 7th and enjoy your favorite type. Whether as a praline, a bar, or a hot drink – chocolate has been sweetening our lives for centuries and deserves to be celebrated properly.