Chocolate is an appropriate gift for just about every occasion from birthdays to graduation to Mother’s Day. But romantic chocolate is the best kind of chocolate to receive! Is there anything sweeter than giving your own true love a romantic chocolate gift of flowers and Belgian truffles on Valentine’s Day?

Chocolate has been associated with romance from the time the Aztecs first used ground cacao beans, spices and water to brew a concoction called xocoatl. Aztec nobles considered the drink to be an aphrodisiac; Montezuma was said to have drunk as many as 50 cups of xocoatl a day in order to deal with his many concubines.

Chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac followed it back to Europe. The celebrated lover Casanova was a great chocolate connoisseur and often gave his many lady loves gifts of chocolate, the better to enhance their libidos.

Queen Victoria is the person who popularised the tradition of giving chocolates as gifts. In 1900, she began soldiers in the Boer War tins of chocolates as Christmas presents. We don’t usually think of Queen as too much of a sexpot but she and Prince Albert had nine children after all so they must have been doing something right. Maybe it was all that chocolate!

Is chocolate really an aphrodisiac? Probably not – but seratonin, one of the chemicals found in chocolate, will elevate your mood while another of the chemicals, phenylethylamine, is the same chemical your brain manufactures when you are first falling in love with someone.

Chocolate may not have proven effects as an aphrodisiac but recent research suggests that it’s healthy for you! Dark chocolate contains anti-oxidant chemicals called flavanoids that can help prevent both heart attacks and cancer. It might be tempting then in the interests of good health to go on an all chocolate diet, but remember: All things in moderation, even romantic chocolate.

The true meaning of friendship is sinful chocolate gift baskets.