Contributed by Info Guru Oliver VanDervoort

Chocolate and chocolate bars are some of the world’s most popular taste treats.

People have been working to refine the taste and the delivery of the chocolate bar for years and while they have managed to add nuts and fruits and all sorts of different flavors to the average candy bar, the chocolate bar remains a staple of our snacking plans. Our love affair with chocolate has turned up quite a few interesting little factoids about the bar and we’ve brought you the best of the best. Here are the top 10 chocolate bar facts.

10. Hershey Bar has history

The Hershey bar is over 100 years old. The milk chocolate bar that millions, if not billions of Americans have gulped down has been around longer than anyone currently alive in United States. The first Hershey’s bar rolled off the assembly line in 1900 and has been among our favorite snack foods ever since.

9. Chocolate is good for business

Chocolate bars keep several industries going. The chocolate bar might look like a fairly simple concoction but there are actually several different ingredients that go into making it. Thanks to chocolate bars, an average of 600,000 tons of cocoa beans are consumed each year. About 40 percent of the world’s almonds and 20 percent of the world’s peanuts are consumed in chocolate bars and about $20 billion are spent per year on the candy.

8. Feel the love

Chocolate is a mood alterer. While there have been rumors that the same mood you feel when you eat chocolate is just like falling in love. That may or may not be true, but chocolate does have caffeine coming from the cocoa beans. The candy also has Theobromine, and Phenyethylamine two drugs that can be mood lifters.

7. Good for you

Chocolate is healthy. Eaten in moderation, America’s favorite candy increases antioxidant levels in the bloodstream and can help keep blood vessel elastic.

6. Favored by royalty

Chocolate bars have royal ties. Louis XIV was such a fan of chocolate that he actually had a court position made for the Royal Chocolate Maker to the King.

5. Eat it now

Chocolate has a weak spot. Chocolate will stay good for about one year if it is left in a cupboard. You can extend the life of the bar my storing it in the freeze indefinitely. The bars have a melting point of room temperature, which is why it melts in your mouth or hands.

4. That’s a big bar

The world record for the largest bar of chocolate weighed in at 5,026 pounds. An Italian food company created the world’s largest bar back in 2000 in an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.

3. Lots of history

The bar is older than Hershey’s. While the Hershey’s bar is more than 100 years old, it isn’t close to the oldest chocolate bar around. The first chocolate bar is reputed to have been created in Mexico in the 1700’s. Two British companies, Cadbury and Fry and Sons turned selling the candy into a real business in the 1840’s.

2. Look for shine

There’s a way to tell the best bar. You can tell the best tasting chocolate bars to a decent degree based on how shiny the bar is (the shinier the better). A bar that smells like a great piece of chocolate is going to taste great as well.

1. Poison

Chocolate is poisonous to dogs. It seems that some people dismiss the rumors that chocolate can be poisonous to dogs as a myth, but it can in fact be quite harmful. Chocolate bars contain a drug called Theobromine. If a dog eats enough of this, it can be toxic to its central nervous system and heart muscles.