Here's What Country Eats The Most Chocolate In The World

There are chocolate lovers, and then there are serious chocolate lovers. But one country rises above them all when it comes to chocolate consumption per capita. Surprisingly, as much as we love our chocolate, it's not the U.S., nor is it a country in Asia or South America. Give up? It's Switzerland.

According to the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, on average, each person eats about 11 kilograms or 24.25 entire pounds of chocolate per year. That is an incredible amount of chocolate. Thinking about my personal consumption, I typically only eat chocolate a few times a month, and I still consider myself someone who loves it. But eating 24 pounds a year is next level. If you do the math, that means the Swiss eat about two pounds of chocolate a month, and at that point, chocolate might as well be a food group. This number may have fluctuated in recent years as other reports cite the slightly lower number of 19 pounds, but still, that's a lot.

Swiss chocolate has a sterling reputation, and I suppose if my home base was particularly known for it, I'd happily reach for a truffle or three. At that volume, it can't be cheap, which means at that point you'd probably need to start factoring chocolate into your grocery budget.

Swiss chocolate innovation runs so deep that a Swiss chocolate company even invented its own subcategory of chocolate: ruby chocolate. It's a light pink chocolate first created by manufacturer Barry Callebaut. Some people liken its flavor to berries, in case you were curious. It originally came out in 2017, which makes it a very new industry innovation. It's supposedly made entirely out of chocolate, but the unique process behind its creation is still a closely-held secret. Yet Swiss ties to chocolate run even deeper — milk chocolate was also invented in Switzerland by a man named Daniel Peter in 1887.

Part of Swiss chocolate consumption could possibly be linked to a drink called Ovomaltine (aka Ovaltine), which is found in most Swiss households. Ovaltine is flavored with, you guessed it, cocoa. Since chocolate is so intertwined with Swiss culture and history, the pieces sort of fall into place. It may be a small country, but it sure has a big sweet tooth.