National Chocolate Covered Nut Day

When it comes to the delightful crunch and sweet goodness of chocolate covered peanuts, this particular day is the perfect reason to celebrate this popular and delicious treat. Get ready to enjoy Chocolate Covered Nut Day!

How to Celebrate Chocolate Covered Nut Day

Get creative about ways to get involved in this day by eating, making, and sharing chocolate-covered peanuts with everyone around! Try out these ideas for celebrating Chocolate Covered Nut Day:

Enjoy Chocolate Covered Peanuts

Whether it’s the brand name ‘Goobers’, or a chocolate-covered peanut manufactured by another company, these little treats aren’t hard to find. They can be enjoyed on almost any occasion–just be sure not to expose them to heat or they’ll end up in one giant pile when they cool again. They would still be edible, of course, but perhaps a little more difficult (and messy!) to eat.

Those who aren’t necessarily purists might even find that colorful M&Ms are a great treat to

Share Chocolate Covered Peanuts

What a perfect day to share the love with friends, family, neighbors and coworkers! Grab lots of small bags of these little treats and pass them around to anyone you come into contact with on this day. Just be sure to ask about peanut allergies first!

Make Chocolate Covered Nuts at Home

Although many brands of these chocolate-covered nuts are available to buy, it can sometimes be more fun – and cheaper – to make them in the kitchen at home. Only a few ingredients are needed and it’s a fairly uncomplicated process.

Simply begin by melting some chocolate in a pan (some people like to add a bit of wax to the mixture to help the chocolate harden and keep its shape). Add in the peanuts and stir it all up until everything is coated. Place the peanuts on a cookie sheet lined in waxed paper or parchment paper, spreading them out as much as possible. Then allow the nuts to cool before eating.

Get Creative with Chocolate Covered Peanuts

While they are certainly delicious when eaten on their own, chocolate-covered peanuts also make a delicious ingredient when added to a variety of recipes that can be whipped up in the kitchen at home.

Try out some of these creative ideas for using chocolate-covered peanuts (Goobers) to make delicious treats:

• Chocolate Covered Peanuts Cookies (Goobers Cookies). Make a standard chocolate chip cookie dough recipe but, instead of adding chocolate chips, add a cup full of goobers instead. This simple substitution can take a basic cookie recipe and turn it into something amazing. Plus, it adds a bit of nutritious value as the peanuts contain protein.
• Peanutty Goober Cake. Starting with a pre-made vanilla cake mix makes this dessert extra easy and perfect for peanut butter lovers. Add in the normal ingredients such as eggs, water and oil. Then add some extras such as peanut butter, brown sugar, peanut butter chips and, of course, a cup full of Goobers.
• Rice Krispie Treats with Goobers. Make a plain crispy rice and marshmallow treat recipe even better by loading them up with a cup full of Goobers or other brand of chocolate covered peanuts.
• Chocolate Covered Peanuts and Popcorn Mix. Maybe it is inspired by the movie theater, who knows? But one really fun sweet-and-salty snack is easily made by mixing up a bowl full of buttery popcorn (preferably of the movie theater variety) and adding a cup full of chocolate covered peanuts to it. Shake it together to mix it up–and enjoy!

Choose a Healthy Snack with Chocolate Covered Nuts

As long as they are eaten with moderation in mind, chocolate-covered peanut is a snack that is probably healthier than some of the other sugary-filled people eat today. For instance, if there is a choice between Goobers and sugary gummy bears, the chocolate-covered peanuts will obviously be more nutritious.

For those who make their own chocolate-covered peanuts at home, using dark chocolate makes this treat even more nutritious. Eaten wisely, both chocolate and peanuts have some beneficial nutritional value, including protein, fiber and antioxidants.

No matter how National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day is celebrated, the main goal is to just go nuts and enjoy the day!

History of Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day

The history of chocolate covered peanuts cannot fully be addressed unless the origins of chocolate are brought into play. Harvested from the fruit of the cacao trees for thousands of years, the use of chocolate can be traced back to the ancient Mayan people and, predating them, the ancient Olmecs who lived in the southern parts of what is now Mexico.

While it is unclear exactly when cacao beans came into use, historians think perhaps it was sometime around 1500 BC. It is believed that, early on, the beans were used to make a drink that was used in special ceremonies and celebrations. At the time, chocolate would have been much stronger and more bitter than it is now, since they didn’t use sweeteners or milk. However, they probably did use some spices in the drinks they mixed up.

It wasn’t until the mid 1800s that chocolate made its transition from use in a drink to being made into a candy or a bar that could be eaten. And it was this invention of the chocolate bar that finally led to the idea of melting the chocolate and covering nuts and other foods with it.

Dipping nuts and fruit into chocolate became popular from the 19th century onwards. However, the first nuts covered in chocolate were sold commercially in America in 1925, with ‘Goobers’ being the oldest brand. Since the word “goober” had been a traditional nickname for peanuts in the southern United States, the name for the chocolate covered peanut treat was a fun play on that slang.

Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate and Cocoa Company is the mastermind behind the making of the first ‘Goobers’. The Goobers company was later purchased in 1984 by Nestlé, one of the companies who got in early on the making of chocolate bars. Then, in 2018, the company made its transition to ownership by the Fererro company.

In 1954, peanut M&Ms were introduced by the Mars company. This is an expansion on the standard chocolate-covered peanut as it now has a colorful candy coating on the outside of the treat (although the original peanut M&Ms were only tan in color and the other colors were introduced 6 years later in 1960 to both plain and peanut M&Ms). But, even with its candy coating, this snack qualifies as a chocolate-covered peanut and is now enjoyed by people all over the world!

Chocolate-coated nuts have a reputation for being a snack to enjoy while watching movies, along with popcorn. It’s not certain when chocolate-covered peanuts were first awarded their own day, but it is believed the unofficial festival originated in the US. And that makes sense because that’s also the place where the chocolate-covered peanut originated!

Although some people celebrate this event as Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day, it is a bit more inclusive to those with allergies to include any and all types of nuts!