Raisins coated in a shell of either milk chocolate or dark chocolate have their special day of honor each March 24 on National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day.
- More than 1 million Raisinets are produced per hour. Slightly less than 30 million individual RAISINETS each day!
- In some countries, chocolate covered raisins are known as Raisinets. Raisinets were the earliest and one of the most popular brands of the product.
- Currently made by Nestle, they are the third largest selling candy in United States history.
- The Blumenthal Chocolate Company introduced the Raisinets to the United States in 1927, and then in 1984, the brand was acquired by Nestle. There are also a large number of other brands of chocolate covered raisins on the market.
- Back then, it took two-and-a-half hours to produce one batch of RAISINETS! Now it takes between 45 and 60 minutes.
- Raisins are an excellent source of calcium, potassium, iron, fiber and vitamin B. When you combine the raisins with dark chocolate, you have a great tasting, healthy snack.
- Every single chocolate covered Raisinet is polished to make it shine.
- A special seedless grape grown only in one part of California is used for many of the chocolate covered raisins sold in the US.
- When boxes of chocolate covered raisins were first sold in movie theaters, the theater paid 1.25 cents per box and sold the boxes for a nickel.
- Raisin – comes from the Latin racemus and means “a cluster of grapes or berries”. It is believed that humans discovered raisins when they happened upon grapes drying on a vine. History books note that raisins were sun-dried from grapes as long ago as 1490 B.C. But several hundred years passed before it was determined which grape variety would make the best raisin.
- Half of the world’s supply of raisins are grown in California.
- Raisin colors vary by drying process. For example, a dark purplish/black raisin is sun-dried. A light to medium brown raisin is mechanically dehydrated in special drying tunnels. A golden to bright yellow raisin is mechanically dried and treated with sulfur dioxide to retain color and a green raisin is dried by air in adobe houses.
- California discovered the commercial potential of raisins quite by accident. In 1873, a freak hot spell withered the grapes on the vine. One enterprising San Francisco grocer advertised these shriveled grapes as “Peruvian Delicacies” and the rest is history. California is now the world’s leading producer of raisins.
- It takes more than 4 tons of grapes to produce 1 ton of raisins.
- The finest raisins are considered to come from Malaga in Spain.
- Fresno, California is the Raisin Capital of the World.
- The California Dancing Raisin was introduced in 1984 by the California Raisin Industry marketing staff to increase awareness and demand for California raisins.
- All NESTLE RAISINETS are produced in Burlington, Wisconsin.
- In 2010 Nestle produced nearly 20 million pounds of Milk and Dark Chocolate RAISINETS, which is equal to approximately 8 billion individual RAISINETS. If you lined them up end-to-end, they’d stretch all the way around the earth about three-and-a-half times!
- RAISINETS are the first chocolate covered raisin candy to have a cartoon series featured on its own YouTube channel! – www.youtube.com/raisinets
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