Hold the phone – it’s National Chocolate Week, and we didn’t know about until now?!

Thankfully, the good folks at Lily O’Brien’s decided to fill us in, via a chocolate survey and a delicious delivery.

As part of National Chocolate Week, 14^th – 20^th October, the chocolatier carried out a survey to determine Ireland’s favourite chocolate flavours, and it seems we’re all crazy about caramel. Carried out by Empathy Research, the survey found Ireland’s top five chocolate flavours are caramel (20%), hazelnut (16%), honeycomb (12%), toffee (9%) and praline (9%).

When it comes to male versus female, tastes differ, with almost a quarter (22%) of Irish males choosing caramel as their favourite from a chocolate assortment compared with 18% of females. The survey, commissioned by award-winning Irish chocolatier Lily O’Brien’s, also shows up taste variations between age groups, with 18-24 year olds preferring honeycomb (20%) and truffle (12%) more than any other age group.

When it comes to milk, dark or white chocolate, 6 out of 10 people prefer milk chocolate, while just over a quarter (28%) prefer dark chocolate. People aged 45+ are more likely to be dark chocolate lovers (38%), while white chocolate is favoured by younger age groups with 21% of 18-24 year olds choosing it as their No.1 chocolate type.

“While the research re-affirmed our understanding of flavour preferences for the most part, it also highlighted some interesting shifts in consumer preferences with, for example, more consumers indicating a preference for dark chocolate than ever before at 28%,” said Suzanne Walsh, Lily O’Brien’s Marketing Manager. “We will certainly be feeding this information back into our NPD team to help guide some of the exciting new product development projects underway for 2014.” 

To mark National Chocolate Week, Lily O’Brien’s is offering 20% off all chocolate purchases from their website (www.lilyobriens.ie) this week, when using code LOBCW20. For the latest news follow Lily O’Brien’s on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LilyOBriens and on Twitter, @lilyobriens