National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day

Today is National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day.

In 1927, the Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Company had the brilliant idea of covering dried California grapes with chocolate. It named the results Raisinets and they’ve been a favorite of moviegoers and vending machine gourmands ever since. The formula changed hands several times before being purchased by Nestlé in 1984.

According to Nestlé, more than one million Raisinets are produced each hour. They’re coated, then machine-polished in large batches to achieve their round shape and high shine. In 2015, the company released this graphic:

They state on their website that if you lined up the number of Raisinets made in one year end-to-end, they would stretch around the globe twice, adding, “Every man, woman and child in the United States would receive 17 Raisinets if the amount made in a year were shared with all.”

Until then, keep buying them yourselves and have a happy National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day!