50 Fun Facts About Chocolate Trivia for Kids

Chocolate is made from the roasted, ground seeds of which tree?

The seeds grow inside big pods on the trunk and branches, and are fermented and dried before roasting.

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

The Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus gave it the name, and it comes from Greek.

Which type of chocolate is ivory-coloured because its cocoa solids are all replaced by milk solids?

It still counts as chocolate because it is made with cocoa butter, the fat from the cocoa bean.

Which two West African countries grow about 60% of the world's cocoa?

Cacao only grows in hot, rainy places close to the equator, so a few tropical countries supply almost everyone.

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 makes it poisonous to which pet?

Dogs break down theobromine much more slowly than people do, so even a small bar can make a small dog very ill.

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

It was added in 1921 so shoppers could tell a real Kiss from copycat chocolates.

About how many Hershey's Kisses are made every day?

They come out of just two factories, and Kisses are one of the best-selling candies in the United States.

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

A wrapping machine took over in 1921, the same year the paper plume appeared.

The Snickers bar was named after what?

The Mars family's favourite horse gave its name to the bar when it launched in 1930.

The Milky Way chocolate bar was named after what?

Frank Mars wanted the bar to taste like a milkshake you could carry in your pocket.

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

Bruce Murrie was the son of the president of Hershey, Mars's biggest rival, and the deal gave Mars a supply of Hershey chocolate.

Finish the M&M's slogan: "melts in your mouth, not in your..."

The hard sugar shell was invented so soldiers could carry chocolate in hot weather without a mess.

Forrest Mars got the idea for M&M's after seeing soldiers eating which British sweet?

He saw them during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and patented his own version in 1941.

As of 2016, about how many Kinder Surprise eggs had been sold since they launched in 1974?

The egg copies an Italian Easter tradition of giving children a big chocolate egg with a toy inside.

Why are Kinder Surprise eggs not sold in the United States?

The 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is the reason, so a toy-free version called Kinder Joy is sold there instead.

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

It was invented in Alba, an Italian town famous for growing them.

About how many nuts go into a 220 g jar of Nutella?

The first jar left the Ferrero factory in Alba on 20 April 1964.

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

It started as a small bakery run by Pietro Ferrero in the town of Alba.

"Rocher", the second word in Ferrero Rocher, is French for what?

Michele Ferrero named it after a rocky grotto at the shrine of Lourdes.

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?

Standard bars come with two or four of them, and Japan sells dozens of unusual flavours.

Finish the Kit Kat slogan used since 1958: "Have a..."

The bar was first sold in 1935 in Britain as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp.

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

The name mixes Tobler, the founder's surname, with torrone, the Italian word for nougat.

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

It is the symbol of Bern, the Swiss city where Toblerone was invented in 1908 and made exclusively until 2022.

Who wrote the 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Dahl also wrote the screenplay for the first film version in 1971.

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

Each finder gets a factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate, and Charlie finds the last one.

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

Johnny Depp took the role in 2005 and Timothée Chalamet played a young Wonka in 2023.

In which US state did Ruth Wakefield invent the chocolate chip cookie in the 1930s?

She and her husband ran the Toll House Inn, which is why the recipe is still called the Toll House cookie.

Which company first sold white chocolate bars in shops, in 1936?

For a long time Europeans thought of it as a food just for children.

Daniel Peter invented the milk chocolate bar in 1875 in which country?

He used condensed milk made by his neighbour Henri Nestlé and called the result Gala, from the Greek word for milk.

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

The town of Hershey has an amusement park and streetlights shaped like Kisses.

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

He sold the Lancaster Caramel Company and used the money to mass-produce milk chocolate, which had been a luxury.

Cadbury was founded in 1824 in which English city?

John Cadbury started out selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate 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 1932 in which English city?

Terry's also made a Chocolate Apple, which was dropped in 1954 because the orange sold better.

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

Two Vienna shops, Hotel Sacher and Demel, argued for years over who owned the original recipe.

Which fruit jam is spread inside a Sachertorte?

The cake is finished with a shiny dark chocolate glaze on top.

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

Legend says he left a mixer running over a weekend by mistake and came back to silky chocolate.

About how much does a ripe cocoa pod weigh?

Each pod holds the beans in a sweet white pulp, and farmers cut the pods off the trunk with a machete.

Cacao trees naturally grow only within 20 degrees north or south of what?

They need about 2,000 mm of rain a year and cannot survive temperatures below 15 °C.

The cacao plant was first used for food at least 5,300 years ago in what is now which country?

That is long before the Maya and Aztecs, who later made cacao central to their cultures.

Which Spanish explorer may have first seen chocolate at Moctezuma II's court in 1520?

Europeans took a while to like it: the first official shipment of cocoa beans to Europe was not recorded until 1585.

On which date is World Chocolate Day celebrated?

The date is said to mark chocolate's arrival in Europe in 1550, and the United States also has its own National Chocolate Day on 28 October.

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

It looks odd but is perfectly safe to eat, and melting the chocolate makes it disappear.

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

Bertha Palmer, whose husband owned the Palmer House Hotel, supposedly asked a pastry chef for a treat that fitted in a lunchbox.

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

The three-flavour pack was named after the Alexandre Dumas novel; today only the chocolate one is left.

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

The name switched to Twix in 1991 in most countries to match the rest of the world.

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

The syrup turns the chocolate into a bendy paste; other special kinds include couverture for coating and unsweetened baking chocolate.

In old Nahuatl texts, the Aztec chocolate drink was called cacahuatl, which means what?

The word 'chocolate' itself came into English from Spanish in 1604, and nobody is quite sure where the Spanish got it.