12 delicious facts about chocolate

Chocolate is everyone’s favourite treat, and to celebrate World Chocolate Day we thought we should compile a list of interesting facts about the delicious snack.

Some are surprising, some are funny, but all are 100% true. So sit back, relax and enjoy a quick bite as you learn the interesting unknowns about chocolate.

America’s favourite taste

Chocolate is America’s favourite taste, with more than half the population naming it as their favourite flavour (bacon surely a close second).

In fact, half the candy eaten in America is some form of chocolate. That’s nearly one and a half billion pounds of chocolate being scoffed each year, or 100lbs a second. It takes 3.5 million pounds of milk a day to keep the country in ready supply.

Energy to walk 150 feet

The energy contained in just one chocolate chip, will give you enough energy to walk 150 feet. Also drinking a cup of dark chocolate each evening will reduce your risk of heart disease by up to a third.

Morale booster during WW1

M&Ms were designed during the First World War as a way of keeping troop’s morale high. The sugar shell around the chocolate enabled soldiers to enjoy chocolate without it melting in the hot conditions.

White chocolate?

White chocolate is not chocolate. It contains no cocoa whatsoever. Obvious really.

Chocolate: Here today…gone today!

Pleasure more lasting than a passionate kiss

The pleasure of chocolate melting in your mouth will last four times longer than the thrill of a passionate kiss.

Even just the smell of chocolate is enough to trigger our brains to release endorphins leaving us in a better mood.

However, this pursuit of a pick-me-up can lead to health problems. People who suffer from depression eat 55% more chocolate than their healthy happy counterparts.

Mr Hershey was due to board the Titanic

The founder of Hershey’s chocolate, Mr Milton Hershey was due to board the Titanic in 1912 before it left for America.

Fortunately for him, and for millions of chocolate lovers ever since, he was called away on business and never took his place on the ship. The company now makes more than 80 million chocolate kisses every day.

Chocolate out of this world

Every space mission ever sent from the USA or Russia has included a supply of chocolate to keep the astronauts’ spirits up.

Thank you Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast is the world’s biggest producer of cocoa, with a massive contribution of 37% of the total world’s supply.

One chocolate chip for lifetime supply

The man who invented the chocolate chip cookie sold his idea to Nestle for a lifetime supply of chocolate. It is in line with the ancient Aztecs who used cocoa beans as currency.

They were obsessed with the stuff and creators of several cocoa products that are worth billion today, such as drinks, skin lotions and snacks. In fact, the Aztecs gave us the word chocolate, which has derived from their word for bitter water, Xocolātl.

Attention dentists

It is claimed that, rather than rotting your teeth, a portion of chocolate a day can actual protect them from decay as its has anti-bacterial qualities.

The claim that chocolate causes acne has also been disproved by scientists.

There’s nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate. Linda Grayson

One cocoa bean = one gram

To make a 400g-sized bar of chocolate, you will need 400 cocoa beans. Plenty more went into the world’s biggest ever chocolate bar, which weighed in at a whopping 12,770lbs.

Thank chocolate for the microwave

Percy Spencer invented the microwave after being inspired when he realised that a chocolate bar in his pocket would melt faster when he was working with magnetrons.

Molly Malone made of chocolate for Molly Malone Day