Chocolate is a staple for many people, whether it's because of the taste, the health benefits, or just total enjoyment and indulgence. But did you know there are tons of interesting facts about chocolate? Show your love for your favorite snack by checking out these fun facts about chocolate.
1. Intellectual Superiority
Does chocolate contribute to intellectual superiority? Perhaps. Eat up because there is a positive correlation between the amount of chocolate a country consumes and the number of Nobel Laureates that country has produced.
2. Versatility
How's this for versatility: the blood in Psycho's famous shower scene was, in fact, chocolate syrup.
3. Complex Flavors
Let's talk complex flavors: chocolate has over 600 different flavor compounds. Red wine? A measly 200.
4. War Secrets
More than an explosion of flavor: Nazis once plotted to kill Winston Churchill with an exploding bar of chocolate.
5. Labor Intensive
It takes a cocoa tree nearly a full year to produce enough pods to make just ten standard-sized chocolate bars.
6. Chocolate Heist
What would you do for chocolate? A jewel thief in Belgium pulled off a $28 million heist after reportedly gaining the trust of the bank's guards by offering them chocolate.
7. Drink Up
For 90% of its history, chocolate was consumed as a liquid – not a solid.
8. Sweet Poison
The compound theobromine, found in chocolate, makes it dangerous for dogs. And it could kill a human, too, but only in a tremendous fit of gluttony, as an average 10-year-old child would have to eat 1,900 Hershey's miniature milk chocolates in a single sitting to reach a fatal dose.
9. Better Than Cash
Soldiers were sometimes paid in chocolate during the Revolutionary War.
10. Royal Drink
Aztec emperor Montezuma II drank over 50 cups of chocolate every day.
11. Old School
Pre-Columbian societies are said to have mixed many materials with chocolate, including ground dinosaur fossils.
12. Not About Space
The Milky Way candy bar was not named after our galaxy. Instead, the name was meant to invoke the flavor of a malted milkshake.
13. Three Musketeers
Three Musketeers bars were originally sold as three pieces in a package, one each of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry flavors. Why the change? The price of strawberries went up.
14. Lifetime Supply
Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie, sold her recipe to Nestle. Her payment? A lifetime supply of chocolate.
15. White Chocolate
White chocolate isn’t technically real chocolate. But you already knew that.
16. Helping Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream was born of an anonymous suggestion at their factory.
17. Rest & Recovery
If you've had a particularly hard workout, chocolate milk is a good post-workout recovery drink.
18. Cha-Ching
The most expensive chocolate bar of all time sold for $687 in 2001. The bar was brought along on Captain Robert Scott's first expedition to the Antarctic.
19. Not So Secret
A study conducted in London in 2004 showed that 70% of people would reveal their passwords in exchange for a chocolate bar.
20. Language Of Love
On Valentine's Day every year, American buy over 58 million pounds of chocolate.
21. Belgium Chocolate
Do you know where the most chocolate in the world is sold? The Brussels Airport. More than 800 tons are sold there every year.
22. Books & Chocolate
Bookstores love chocolate because the mere aroma makes customers 40% more likely to buy cookbooks or romance novels and 22% more likely to buy any books at all.
23. Not So German
Did you think German chocolate cake is from Germany? Nope. It's named after its inventor, Sam German.
24. All That Cacao
It takes approximately 400 cacao beans to make one pound of chocolate.
25. M&M History
M&M's were created in 1941 as a means for soldiers to enjoy chocolate without it melting (you know the slogan!).
26. Not A Minute Goes By
Every second, Americans collectively eat 100 pounds of chocolate.
27. Pound By Pound
The world's largest chocolate bar weighed 12,770 pounds.
28. Saved By The Bell
Chocolate magnate Milton Hershey canceled his reservations for the Titanic due to last-minute business matters.
29. Pearly Whites
Chocolate has an anti-bacterial effect on the mouth and protects against tooth decay.
30. Save Your Heart
Eating dark chocolate every day reduces the risk of heart disease by one-third.
31. The Best Chocolate
The best chocolate in all of Minnesota is at Legacy Chocolates. (OK, we're a little biased!)
Show Yourself Some Love At Legacy Chocolates
Now that you’re full of fun chocolate facts, indulge in some of the sweet stuff by stopping by Legacy Chocolates in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota!
If you’re not from around here, that’s okay! You can shop online and have your favorite truffles and chocolate bark shipped to your home.
Are you interested in more information about our handmade chocolates? Give us a call at 651-340-5252 or send us a message through our website. We look forward to sharing the chocolate love!
