Caffeine

Caffeine does quicken the pulse, but chocolate doesn’t contain as much caffeine as people think. Yes, three ounces of pure, unadulterated chocolate liquor may contain as much caffeine as a cup of regular coffee, but a three-ounce bar of your average milk chocolate contains less than a tenth as much. A bar of dark chocolate, just under 15% as much. It’s only when you start getting up into the truly potent, deep dark extra-bittersweets that caffeine is found in amounts large enough to act as a stimulant for a full-grown human, and then only if you eat quite a bit of it (or happen to be caffeine-sensitive).