How Much Chocolate is Eaten on Valentine’s Day?
by Josh Loposer , Holidash
In terms of gorging oneself on candy, Valentine’s Day is second only to Halloween, the king of candy-induced stomach aches. The main difference is that on Valentine’s Day we skip the candy corn and go straight for the good stuff — and by “good stuff” I mean chocolate.
Just how many chocolate-covered hearts do we shove down our pie-holes each Valentine’s Day? According to Nielsen, Americans will purchase around 58 million pounds of chocolateduring the days leading up to the 14th (a small fraction of the reported 3 billion pounds per year), and we shell out somewhere around $345 million to satisfy our Valentine’s sweet tooth.
Of course, it’s not like we buy all this chocolate by the pound or anything — it’s much more appropriate and romantic when it comes in a heart-shaped box, obviously. So obvious, in fact, that America’s thoughtful shoppers buy 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolates each Valentine’s Day.
Once again, that 58 million pounds only includes chocolate candy. When it comes to the iconic “conversation hearts,” 8 billion of the chatty little pastel candies are sold between February 1st and 14th. I don’t know how much that weighs.
