Chocoholics everywhere are celebrating World Chocolate Day, honoured every year on 7 July. The occasion provides the perfect excuse to devour as many cacao based treats as you want, almost guilt free.
To mark this sweet day, Guinness World Records is savouring the top 10 most chocolatey world record titles.
1. Most expensive dessert
The Frrrozen Haute Chocolate, costing $25,000 (£12,000), was added to the menu of the Serendipity 3 restaurant, New York City, USA, on 7 November 2007. Made in partnership with luxury jeweller Euphoria of New York, the sundae uses a fine blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of the world’s most expensive. It is decorated with 5 g (0.17 oz) of edible 23-carat gold and is served in a goblet lined with edible gold. The base of the goblet is an 18-carat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds. The dessert is eaten with a gold and diamond spoon, which can also be taken home.
We recently visited the New York restaurant to witness the making of the previous record holder, Serendipity Golden Opulence Sundae, which held the record for the most expensive dessert with a price of $1,000 from September 2004 until November 2007.
2. Largest chocolate truffle
There have been numerous super-sized chocolate creations that have set records since Guinness World Records started documenting incredible achievements, but few will have matched the scale of the new title holder for the largest chocolate truffle.
Using huge amounts of chocolate and a large dome-shaped mold, Sweet Shoppe USA created the super-sized treat based on their most popular Milk Swiss Mint Truffle and it weighed in at 1,074.33 kg (2,368 lb 8 oz).
3. Earliest chocolate
In 2007, anthropologist John Henderson (USA) found traces of cacao in pottery fragments dating to 1150 bce near Puerto Escondido in Honduras. It’s thought the cacao was fermented and drank as a mildly alcoholic beverage.
Although cacao-based drinks may have emerged centuries before, the earliest chocolate drink recipe dates from 1631. Published in Chocolate: or, an Indian Drinke, penned by Spanish physician Antonio Colmenero, the book expounded the food's health benefits, claiming it could cure coughs and sickness, and even aid conception.
4. Longest chocolate sculpture
This 111-ft 8-in-long (34.05-m) chocolate choo-choo was put on display at Brussels South railroad station in Belgium on November 19, 2012. The tasty train was crafted from Belcolade chocolate by master chocolatier Andrew Farrugia (Malta) as part of Brussels Chocolate Week. A jazz band provided the musical accompaniment on the day, with the keyboard player tinkling away on a grand piano that was also made from chocolate!
5. Fastest time to eat a Chocolate Orange
The fastest time to eat a Chocolate Orange is 1 minute 16 seconds, and was achieved by Adrian Paul Blake (UK) in Bournemouth, Dorset, UK on 19 June 2014. Think you can break this record? Apply here.
6. Largest collection of chocolate bars
Chocolate-lover Bob Brown (USA) has the world's largest personal collection of chocolate bars, with 770 unique items. His tempting cache was put on display at the Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis, USA, on 29 October 2010.
7. Largest chocolate sculpture
Aficion Chocolate (China) crafted a building 4.08 m (13 ft 4.6 in) long on 30 Sep 2015. Weighing 10,187 kg (22,458 lb 7 oz), this edible edifice outdid the previous record by 1,900 kg (4,188 lb).
8. Largest cup of hot chocolate/cocoa
If you prefer to drink your chocolate… The largest cup of hot chocolate contains 3,331.16 l (732.753 gal, 880 US gal) and was achieved by The Festival of Chocolate and The Museum of Science and Industry (USA), in Tampa, USA, on 21 January 2013.
9. Largest chocolate bar by area
Čokoladnica Cukrček (Slovenia) prepared a chocolate bar that measured 142.32 m² (1,531.9 sq ft) in Radovljica, Slovenia, on 15 Apr 2016. The event was part of an annual chocolate festival and was attended by Slovenia’s prime minister. In the inset picture, one worker adds a finishing touch to the colossal confectionery.
10. Largest box of chocolate bars
Meiji Corporation (Japan) displayed a 2,044-kg (4,506-lb 3.9-oz) box of chocolate in Tokyo, Japan, on 29 Jan 2016.