World Chocolate Day: From chocolate blood to assassination plots – 10 strange chocolate facts

Whether it is super-sweet white or delicious, yet bitter dark, chocolate is our favourite comfort food, mood-enhancer and pick-me-up snack.

To celebrate the day, here are ten things we bet you did not know about the alluring stuff;

• During the Second World War, the Nazis plotted to kill Sir Winston Churchill with a bar of exploding chocolate. Adolf Hitler's bombmakers coated explosive devices with a thin layer of rich dark chocolate, before wrapping it in expensive-looking paper. The plot was foiled by British spies, who tipped off MI5's intelligence chiefs.

• The blood in the famous shower scene in Psycho was actually made from chocolate syrup.

• In Mayan times, the cocoa bean was used as currency. The Maya, one of the oldest civilisations on the American continent, used the beans in exchange for food or clothing.

• The chocolate chip cookie was created by accident by chef and businesswoman Ruth Wakefield in 1930. Having run out of baker's chocolate, she mixed pieces of broken Nestle chocolate into the dough, expecting the chocolate to be absorbed. She ended up with chocolate chip cookies instead.

• Dark chocolate is often lauded for its health benefits. It contains minerals such as potassium, selenium, iron and zinc, but like all chocolate, is best enjoyed sparingly.

• The first chocolate bar as we know it today was created in 1847 by the Bristol company Fry & Son. It was made from cocoa powder including super and melted cocoa butter extracted from cocoa beans.

• The largest chocolate bar measured more than 140m² and was prepared by a Slovenian chocolate maker in Radovljica, Slovenia, in April 2016, for a chocolate festival.

• White chocolate is not actually white chocolate – because it does not contain cocoa solids or cocoa liquor, but contains cocoa butter instead. It is typically made from a mixture of cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar, milk fat and lecithin, which acts as an emulsifier that binds the ingredients.

• With cockroaches (and their droppings) occurring at cocoa beans' source – an average of eight insect parts are found in a chocolate bar, which is deemed safe according to the guidelines issued by the US Food and Drug Administration. Studies now suggest that people with chocolate allergies could actually be allergic to cockroaches.

• The chocolate river featured in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was made from 150,000 gallons of water, chocolate and cream. According to reports, the concoction gave out a terrible smell as the cream began to go sour.