When is chocolate not chocolate?

April 5th, 2012

For decades, Europe was bitterly divided over which heavenly concoctions had the right to be named chocolate. Until 2003, Spain and Italy banned candy makers in Britain and Denmark from labeling their products as chocolate because they added tiny amounts of vegetable fats instead of using only pure cocoa butter.

At the negotiations ending World War I, the French insisted that the Treaty of Versailles prohibit all grape growers outside the Champagne region from referring to their sparkling wine as Champagne. And cheesemakers outside Greece are forbidden by European law to use the word feta because their product does not come from special breeds of sheep and goats.

I didn’t know this stretches back to Versailles!

H/T MM