20 Delicious Facts About Chocolate

Ah chocolate, the first love of every man, woman and child, it’s a solution (however temporary) to every problem from upset and anger to happiness and adoration. Chocolate truly is one of the wonders of the world, in the past it has been that valued it’s actually been used as currency and  in 2014 U.S. chocolate sales were $21.1 billion, that alone shows the significance and the demand for the product. Whether it be white, milk, dark or other more rare varieties (all will be revealed later on), everyone loves to sit down and have a square or 10. Here we’re going to look at 100 mouth-wateringly delicious facts about chocolate.

1. Winston Churchill at one point was in danger of a Nazi assassination by an exploding bar of chocolate.

2. Aztecs used cacao seeds were a form of currency.

3. Montezuma II, an Aztec emperor, drank over 50 cups of chocolate per day.

4. As well as milk, dark, and white varieties, there is a rare fourth type known as blond chocolate.

5. The film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was financed by Quaker Oats to promote its new Wonka Bar candy. That’s why it’s named that instead of the book’s title of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

6. Joseph Fry invented the first chocolate bar in 1847.

7. The chocolate industry is worth approximately $110 billion per year.

8. Milky Way bars aren’t named after the galaxy; they’re named after the malted milkshakes the bars were supposed to taste like.

9. Three Musketeers bars were originally three pieces; chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. They switched to just the one bar after strawberry prices increased.

10.               In 1947, hundreds of Canadian kids went on strike and boycotted chocolate after the price of a chocolate bar jumped from 5 to 8 cents.

11.               Andes Candies were called “Andy’s Candy’s,” after creator George Andrew Kanelos but it was changed after men didn’t want to buy their partners chocolates with another man’s name.

12.               A 2013 study found that the smell of chocolate in a bookstore made customers 22% more likely to buy books of any genre and a whopping 40% more likely to buy cookbooks or romance novels.

13.               The largest chocolate bar ever weighed over 12,770 lbs (5,792 kg), created in the UK in celebration of Thornton’s 100^th birthday.

14.               The world’s most valuable chocolate bar is a 100-year-old Cadbury’s bar, it sold for $687 at auction in 2001. It was taken on Captain Robert Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic.

15.               Chocolate milk was invented in Jamaica. Irish botanist Sir Hans Sloane is said to have first mixed chocolate with milk in Jamaica in the early 1700s.

16.               Chocolate milk is an effective post-workout recovery drink.

17.               German chocolate cake has history with Germany. It’s named after its inventor, Sam German.

18.               Darker chocolates can have as much caffeine as a can of Coca-Cola.

19.               A 2004 London study found that 70% of people would give their passwords for a chocolate bar.

20.               Americans buy 58 million+ lbs (26 million+ kg) of chocolate on Valentine’s Day, that’s 5% of yearly sales.