Do you know what combination of ingredients goes together extremely well? If you ask us, we’d say that combining chocolate with almonds is a winner every single time. And we think that there are quite a few people who would probably agree with us. Why are we so certain of that fact? It’s because we’ve discovered that it’s so popular it has its own holiday. A holiday that falls on July 8th and is known as National Chocolate With Almonds Day. It sounds like a good day to feature desserts that contain these two ingredients.

Sweet Facts About Chocolate

Since the history of this holiday is currently unknown to us, we’ve decided to go ahead and list some facts about chocolate. Once we’re done with laying out the following chocolate facts, we’ll go ahead and put out some facts on almonds as well.

• To make a pound of chocolate, you need approximately 400 cacao beans.
• A cacao tree can produce approximately 2,500 beans, meaning each tree can make enough beans for over 6 pounds of chocolate.
• Cacao farmers lose approximately 30% of their crop each year due to the delicate nature of the trees.
• The tree that produces cacao beans is named Theobroma Cacao—this means “food of the gods.”
• A serving of milk chocolate has the same amount of caffeine as a cup of decaffeinated coffee.
• Benjamin Franklin sold chocolate out of his Philadelphia print shop.
• About 50 million people worldwide depend on cacao for their livelihood.

Interesting Facts About Almonds

As promised, we’ve also discovered some interesting facts about almonds. We think the following facts will give everyone something to munch on intellectually while they’re enjoying this holiday.

• 80% of the world’s almonds come from California.
• It takes 1.2 million beehives to pollinate California’s almond crop.
• Chocolate manufacturers use 40% of the world’s almond supply.
• Almonds are one of the earliest cultivated foods—going all the way back to biblical times.
• It takes a thousand pounds of almonds to make a pint of almond oil.

Observing National Chocolate With Almonds Day

Anyone wanting to observe this holiday can do so by making and eating food that contains a combination of chocolate and almonds. This can be an almond chocolate bar, or it can be a chocolate cake with almonds in it. No matter what you make, however, just be sure to use the hashtag #NationalChocolateWithAlmondsDay to let everyone know you’re observing this sweet holiday.