chocolate – Topical Fruit

Did you know there is a map breaking down every state’s favorite thing to dip in chocolate? Most of the picks are exactly what you would expect. A few are questionable. And one of them absolutely should have stayed a secret.

Let’s start with the big headline:

Across the country, the most popular thing to cover in chocolate is bacon. Yes, bacon. Somewhere, a cardiologist just sighed very deeply.

Chocolate covered bacon takes the top spot overall, thanks largely to Middle America really leaning into the sweet and salty chaos. Bacon is the number one choice in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. That is a lot of states agreeing that pork belongs in dessert.

Bananas come in as another big favorite. They are the most popular chocolate covered item in Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Virginia. Respectable. Classic. Nobody is mad at chocolate bananas.

Chocolate covered nuts also had a strong showing, which feels very on brand. Almonds are number one in Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Utah, and Washington. Pecans take the top spot in Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Peanuts win in South Dakota, while macadamia nuts rule in Hawaii. These states are all nuts, literally.

Strawberries, the romantic overachiever of chocolate foods, are the favorite in Alaska, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming. Meanwhile, cherries win in Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and West Virginia. This feels like something you would order off a menu without questioning it.

Then things start to get weird.

California prefers chocolate covered blueberries. Pennsylvania goes with apples. New Jersey chooses pineapples, which feels aggressively tropical for that state. Kentucky likes chocolate covered grapes, while Illinois and Washington, D.C. prefer raisins, which are just grapes that gave up.

Ohio chooses chocolate covered pickles, which raises several follow-up questions no one wants answered. Florida goes with popcorn. Delaware picks pretzels. North Dakota prefers potato chips. Idaho and Kansas opt for coffee beans, which feels like a cry for caffeine help.

And then there is North Carolina.

North Carolina’s favorite chocolate covered item is crickets. Actual insects. Covered in chocolate. Somebody had to say it, and unfortunately, somebody did.

As if chocolate wasn’t already carrying the team, science has decided to give it a hype track.

A researcher in the U.K., Dr. Natalie Hyacinth, has composed a piece of music that supposedly makes chocolate taste even better when you listen to it. Because clearly what chocolate was missing all this time… was taste.

Dr. Hyacinth reviewed 60 years of research on something called multisensory integration… basically how your brain smashes together different senses to shape experiences. Then she used it to write a tune built around “flavor-enhancing sonic qualities” like pitch, tempo, and harmony. Translation: chocolate now has a theme song.

It’s called “Sweetest Melody.” It’s about 64 seconds long, and that’s no accident… that’s roughly how long it takes a piece of chocolate to melt in your mouth. (If it melts faster than that, it might have been a ‘pocket chocolate,’ amirite?)

The track is now on Spotify and YouTube, so you can test it yourself. Just grab some chocolate, press play, and see if it suddenly tastes like you’re eating Godiva on a silk pillow.

Worst-case scenario, you’re still eating chocolate while vibing to music, which is about as close as adulthood gets to “living the dream.”

Science has shown for years that high-pitched sounds make things taste sweeter, low tones bring out bitterness, and tempo can change intensity. But until now, no one had the courage to say, “What if we used this power… to encourage chocolate consumption?”

So next time you unwrap a Hershey bar, skip the background Netflix noise and let “Sweetest Melody” serenade your taste buds. Who knows? With the right playlist, maybe even candy corn could taste edible.

(Here’s video of Dr. Hyacinth talking about the experience.)

Tag: chocolate

The King of Chocolate Covered Foods Is Bacon

Across the country, the most popular thing to cover in chocolate is bacon. Yes, bacon. Somewhere, a cardiologist just sighed very deeply.

Chocolate Tastes Better… If You Eat It with This Song

The track is now on Spotify and YouTube, so you can test it yourself. Just grab some chocolate, press play, and see if it suddenly tastes like you’re eating Godiva on a silk pillow.