44 Fun Facts About Chocolate Trivia for Kids

Which chocolate product did the Dutch van Houten family's press make cheap and easy to produce?

Cocoa powder: squeezing out the cocoa butter opened the door to mass-producing chocolate.

Theobroma, the scientific name of the tree chocolate comes from, means what?

Food of the gods: the Aztecs believed their gods had given them cacao.

Which type of chocolate contains no cocoa solids apart from cocoa butter?

White: leaving out the brown cocoa solids makes it pale, and its cocoa butter is what US rules require to sell it as white chocolate.

As of 2024, which two neighbouring countries grew the most cocoa in the world?

Ivory Coast and Ghana: Ghana's crop is traditionally credited to Tetteh Quarshie, who is said to have brought beans back from the island of Fernando Po.

Long ago, the Maya and Aztecs used cocoa beans as what?

Beans paid for goods at market and were sent to rulers as tribute, so a chocolate drink was literally drinking your cash.

Chocolate contains theobromine, which most often poisons which household pet?

Dogs: the darker the chocolate, the more of the toxic stuff it holds, so dark and baking chocolate are the most dangerous.

What is the little paper strip that sticks out of the top of a Hershey's Kiss called?

A plume: Hershey added it in 1921 so shoppers could tell a real Kiss from copycat chocolates.

When Hershey's Kisses were first made in 1907, how were they wrapped?

By hand: in 1921 a wrapping machine took over, and it began tucking a little paper strip into every Kiss.

Which chocolate bar, launched in 1930, was named after its makers' favourite horse?

Snickers: yet in the UK it was sold as Marathon until 1990, when it finally took the horse's name there too.

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which child falls into Willy Wonka's chocolate river?

Augustus Gloop: the greedy boy leans too far over the river, falls in and gets sucked up a pipe.

What do the two M's in M&M's stand for?

Mars and Murrie: Bruce Murrie was the son of a Hershey boss, so the deal kept Mars supplied with Hershey chocolate as wartime shortages loomed.

Which word completes the M&M's slogan, 'melts in your mouth, not in your ___'?

Hand: during World War II, M&M's were sold only to the US military.

Which British sweet is M&M's thought to have been modelled on?

Smarties: a candy shell kept the chocolate from melting, so it could be carried in warm weather.

Why are Kinder Surprise eggs banned from sale in the United States?

They hide a toy inside: a 1938 US law bars sweets with non-edible objects inside, so Americans got Kinder Joy instead in 2018.

Nutella is a sweet spread made from cocoa and which nut?

Hazelnuts: they make up about 13% of a jar, while cocoa is only about 7%, so it's really more nut spread than chocolate.

Ferrero, the company that makes Nutella, Kinder and Ferrero Rocher, comes from which country?

Italy: in 2018 Ferrero bought a big US candy business, including the Crunch bar, for about $2.8 billion.

In Japan, Kit Kats are popular before exams because the name sounds like a phrase meaning what?

Surely win: 'kitto katsu' is a good-luck wish students often use before exams, so the bars double as lucky charms.

Reese's cups come in a pumpkin shape for which holiday?

There are hearts for Valentine's Day, eggs for Easter and trees for Christmas too, all with the same peanut butter middle.

The pieces of a Kit Kat bar are known as what?

Fingers: the story goes that the bar was born in 1935 after a worker at Rowntree's suggested a chocolate bar a man could take to work.

Which word completes Kit Kat's famous slogan, 'Have a ___, have a Kit Kat'?

Break: in the US, where Hershey makes Kit Kats, TV ads built a famous jingle around the same word.

Toblerone's triangular shape is commonly said to be inspired by which mountain?

The Matterhorn: yet Tobler's sons said the shape came from a human pyramid formed by dancers at the Folies Bergère in Paris.

Which animal was hidden in the mountain on Toblerone's classic packaging?

A bear: it's the symbol of Bern, the city where Toblerone was first made, tucked into the mountain's outline.

Who wrote the 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Roald Dahl: he was credited with writing the 1971 film, yet he disowned it after changes were made against his wishes.

How many Golden Tickets does Willy Wonka hide in his chocolate bars?

Five: the finders win a factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate, and Charlie finds the very last one.

Who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?

Gene Wilder: he took the part only if Wonka could first limp out with a cane, then tumble into a somersault.

Ruth Wakefield, credited with inventing chocolate chip cookies in the 1930s, ran an inn in which US state?

Massachusetts: she and her husband ran the Toll House Inn in Whitman, which is why the recipe is called the Toll House cookie.

In which country did Daniel Peter create the first successful milk chocolate?

Switzerland: water in milk kept spoiling his chocolate, until he found a way to use milk with most of the water removed.

Milton Hershey built a whole town around his chocolate factory in which US state?

Pennsylvania: he later placed his chocolate company's assets in a trust for a school he founded, originally for local orphans.

Before chocolate, Milton Hershey made his first fortune selling which sweet?

Caramels: he sold his Lancaster Caramel Company for $1 million and used the proceeds to mass-produce milk chocolate, once a luxury.

Cadbury was founded in 1824 in which English city?

Birmingham: John Cadbury started out selling drinking chocolate, among other goods, from a shop on Bull Street.

During which stretch of the calendar are Cadbury Creme Eggs on sale?

More than 200 million are sold in Britain each season, and American adverts feature a bunny that clucks like a chicken.

Terry's Chocolate Orange was created in which English city?

York: Terry's also made a Chocolate Apple, but phased it out in 1954 to make more of the orange instead.

Sachertorte, a famous chocolate cake with a layer of jam, comes from which country?

Austria: in one story, a teenage apprentice named Franz Sacher invented it in 1832 when Prince Metternich's chef was ill.

Which fruit jam is spread inside a Sachertorte?

Apricot: Hotel Sacher and the Demel pastry shop later fought for years over the cake's name and who owned the original recipe.

Rodolphe Lindt's 1879 machine, the conche, made chocolate what?

Smoother: legend says Lindt left a mixer running over a weekend by mistake and came back to silkier chocolate.

Cacao trees grow naturally only in a band around which line on the globe?

The equator: the trees need plenty of rain and warm temperatures, and that tropical belt provides both.

What are you traditionally meant to do to a Terry's Chocolate Orange before unwrapping it?

Tap it on a hard surface: the knock breaks the ball apart into its 20 separate segments.

Which Spanish conquistador may have been the first European to see chocolate?

Hernán Cortés: back in Europe, people tamed the bitter drink by sweetening it and adding familiar spices.

A s'more squashes a toasted marshmallow and chocolate between two what?

Graham crackers: the treat's name comes from squeezing together two words, 'some more'.

What is the name for the whitish coating that appears on chocolate stored at the wrong temperature?

Bloom: warmth lets the chocolate's fat soften and slip out of place, then set again on top as a pale film.

According to legend, brownies were first baked in 1893 for ladies visiting a World's Fair in which city?

Chicago: socialite Bertha Palmer is said to have asked the Palmer House Hotel for a dessert easy to pack in boxed lunches.

The 3 Musketeers bar originally came with three flavours: chocolate, vanilla and what?

Strawberry: rising costs and wartime limits on sugar killed off the vanilla and strawberry pieces, leaving just the chocolate one.

For many years, Twix bars were sold in mainland Europe under what name?

Raider: the name switched to Twix in 1991 in most of Europe, yet Raider came back for retro editions in Germany in 2009.

Modeling chocolate, used to sculpt cake decorations, is made by melting chocolate and mixing in what?

A sugar syrup: corn, glucose or golden syrup turns melted chocolate into a bendy paste that holds its shape like clay.