Over Half Of All People Say This Is Their Favorite Type Of Chocolate

The Latin name for the cacao tree, source of all chocolate, is Theobroma cacao, something the Carnegie Museums says translates to mean "food of the gods." Well, few of us would dispute chocolate's claim to that title, although, we're pretty glad that the gods don't hog it all to themselves. While chocolate was originally used as a beverage, it's more popular in its more modern form as a type of candy as well as a flavoring for cookies, cakes, brownies, ice cream, and other treats too numerous to name. 

One of the eternal questions that often divides people — although it's certainly not as contentious an issue as Coke v. Pepsi or Chick-fil-A v. Popeyes — is which type of chocolate is the real deal? In order to settle this issue for once and all, Mashed polled the entire world via YouTube, and while several billion of you refused to respond to our call, some 41,000 people did step up to the (Hershey) bar to set the record straight. Bad news, health food fanatics: your pick didn't come out on top.

Milton Hershey will forever be enshrined in the hearts of 56 percent of poll respondents, as they chose sweet, creamy milk chocolate as their top pick. Despite the fact, that we've all been bombarded for the past few decades with propaganda about how healthy dark chocolate is supposed to be, only 31 percent of our respondents made the supposedly healthier choice. Although, we didn't ask any of them to disclose whether they actually get any pleasure from eating those gritty, acerbic high-percentage cacao versions or whether they are actually enjoying lower-percentage dark chocolate that's more sweet than bitter.

Of those we polled, 12 percent were brave enough to stand up and pledge their allegiance to white chocolate, and no, they really don't want to hear "that's not real chocolate!" They like what they like, and that's okay with us. We did, of course, get a few renegades (1 percent) who went with the "other" category and then proceeded to leave comments such as, "Chocolate Rain Some Stay Dry And Others Feel The Pain" and "Sexual chocolate." The one comment we most agree with, however, was the following: "Chocolate that I have eaten is my favorite kind, followed closely by chocolate that I have not yet eaten. The only chocolate I don't like is chocolate I won't get to eat....that one's horrible." Preach!