Giving Thanks for Canadian Craft Chocolate

Here is a (sort of) trick question: Which country meets all the below criteria?

• Celebrates Thanksgiving
• Invented the following games:
  • Trivial Pursuit
  • Lacrosse
  • Basketball
  • Yahtzee
  • Pictionary
• Has the following geographical distinctions:
  • Is the world’s second largest country in terms of landmass (over 9,984,670 square kilometers)
  • Has the worlds longest coastline at 202,080 kilometers
  • Borders only one other country.
  • Has the world’s longest coastline, and more than half of the world’s lakes
  • (Is thought to have had) the first European contact (Leif Erikson around 1000AD)
  • Has the oldest known rocks on Earth (the Acasta Gneiss is over 4 BILLION years old)

Here is a hint:  This year, this country celebrates Thanksgiving on Monday the 14th October 2024 (not the third Thursday in November)

The answer is CANADA.

Canada is also AMAZING for Craft Chocolate.  Any list of the world’s greatest Craft Chocolate makers will include the likes of Qantu, Sirene, DesBarres, SOMA, Hummingbird and Palette Du Bin (and some more we are looking forward to introducing SOON).

Not bad for a population of “only” 41 million.  And one a LONG way from any cocoa farms.

Quite why Canadians make such great Craft Chocolate Makers is an interesting question.  Asking Max, Elfi, Taylor, Ariane, Erik, Cynthia, David or Christine (the makers of the above companies) always results in a laconic, and typically modest, “Do you really think so?  We’re not really sure”.

Maybe this is part of the answer.  All of these makers are both humble and always seeking to improve.  But this is true of many craft chocolate makers (and this is another reason why makers are so great to be around).

Another may well be that these Canadian makers are keen to explore other makers bars and other farmers beans, as well as learn from other “speciality” and “craft” industries like beer, coffee, etc.  This isn’t to say that other makers in other countries don’t do this .. but Canadian makers seem to us to be particularly adventurous and curious, perhaps because their local market is dwarfed by that of the US next door.  And this curiosity and drive really shows in their bars.

To celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving we’ve built out a box of AMAZING Canadian Craft Chocolate – see here.

A SHORT HISTORY OF CANADIAN INVENTIONS

For those of you who are interested in the stories of the inventions mentioned above, here is a short rundown of how it all happened…

Trivial Pursuit
“Formulated by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott in Montreal in 1979, the game that tests general knowledge has gone on to sell more than 88 million copies. Initial investors in the game earned $500,000 for every $1,000 staked.” Source

Lacrosse
“Lacrosse is based on games played by various Native American communities as early as 1100 AD. By the 17th century, a version of lacrosse was well-established and was documented by Jesuit missionary priests in the territory of present-day Canada.” Source

Basketball
“In early December 1891, Canadian James Naismith, a physical education professor and instructor at the International Young Men’s Christian Association Training School (YMCA) in Springfield, Massachusetts, was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto an elevated track.” Source

Yahtzee
“Yahtzee was invented by a wealthy Canadian couple to play aboard their yacht. Whenever friends were invited aboard, they were taught how to play the “Yacht” game. Their friends enjoyed the game so much that they all wanted copies of their own.” Source

Pictionary
“In 1982, Robert Angel and his friends would gather to play a game that required each player to randomly locate a word in the dictionary and sketch it for their team members. In 1984, Angel moved to Seattle and found his old notes of the game and decided to play a few test games with his family. Having realized the importance of knowing words, he read the dictionary and created a word list. Two other partners joined, and they produced the first 1,000 words game in his apartment.” Source

Balderdash
“Selling more than 15 million copies to date, this game combining trivia and bluffing was developed by Toronto residents Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne in 1984. A Balderdash television show briefly aired in 2004 and 2005.” Source

Table hockey
“The first commercial tabletop games were designed by Toronto’s Donald H. Munro in 1933. Munro built his prototype from scavenged scraps of metal and wood as a Christmas present for his children.” Source