Everyone Hates Vanilla: Britain’s Favourite Flavour of Chocolate Revealed

Britain is certainly a nation of chocolate lovers, so much so that at the end of 2019, the UK was ranked fourth in the whole world followed by our transatlantic counterparts America coming in at eighth. According to research, the typical Brit will munch around 11kg of chocolate each year, which is around 660,900 tonnes across the whole country. The British Heart Foundation revealed that the average British adult will indulge in 8,316 chocolate biscuits, 7,560 chocolate bars, 3,024 mugs of hot chocolate, 2,898 miniature chocolates, 2,268 slices of chocolate cake, and 126 Easter eggs in their life.

Statistics from research group Mintel showed that 17 per cent of Brits enjoy chocolate four to six times a week, with nearly a quarter between the ages 25–34 eating chocolate daily, and only five per cent who never do.

Coming in many different forms and flavours, you’d struggle to raid someone’s cupboard and not find a single chocolate related item. But, which chocolate is Britain’s favourite?

The great chocolate debate

It’s time to answer the million-dollar question threatening the fabric of our existence: what kind of chocolate is Britain’s most loved, and which regions have the best taste?

Whether you’re a classic milk chocolate fanatic or prefer indulging in something luxurious like honeycomb chocolate, we decided to find out and put an end to all of this madness. Fair trade retailer Traidcraft did some research on Google search volumes to find out which type of chocolate people are thinking about and searching the most. We gathered data on average search interest and average monthly searches across two years from 2018 to 2020.

UK’s favourite chocolate

Dark chocolate came top with an overall average search interest of 61%, followed closely by coffee chocolate and caramel chocolate with 56%, mint chocolate with 55%, coconut chocolate with 54%, white chocolate with 54% and shockingly, milk chocolate at seventh place with 51%. With a rise in veganism the UK over the last year, it’s not surprising to see dark chocolate rank higher than milk chocolate.

White chocolate was a lockdown favourite, with the most searches from 24^th March, when lockdown began, to 7^th July, when restrictions started to ease, followed by vanilla, strawberry, ruby, and raspberry. It seems that typically unpopular chocolate climbed sharply in the rankings, which could be down to bored shoppers exploring for excitement, be it through new and novelty flavours they wouldn’t typically buy. Combined with the fact that chocolate is the ultimate comfort food in times of crisis!

Baking was a popular hobby taken up by many across the nation during lockdown, and it seems that orange chocolate, white chocolate, and ruby chocolate were the most popular when baking.

Everyone hates vanilla

Interestingly, dark chocolate was every UK region’s favourite chocolate and vanilla was the least favourite, showing that the country is united in our taste for the finer things. The North of England has a particular taste for white chocolate, whereas generally there are fluctuations between popularity in regions for orange, milk, strawberry, and ruby chocolate — flavours the country can’t seem to agree on.

Chocolate is certainly one of the UK’s favourite snacks, but which flavour is your favourite?