National Chocolate Chip Day
Chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookie dough pops…the possibilities are endless for tasty, irresistible treats on National Chocolate Chip Day.
Drive chocolate chip product sales and cross-category indulgence by positioning May as the month to celebrate chocolate chips across breakfast, snacks, and desserts.
- Chocolate Chip Breakfast Challenge: feature pancakes, muffins, and cereal with chocolate chips
- Beyond Cookies: showcase chocolate chips in ice cream, granola bars, pudding, and unexpected meal applications
- Toll House Heritage Story: leverage the 1930s origin narrative and Nestlé partnership for brand nostalgia content
- DIY Chocolate Chip Creations: user-generated content campaign encouraging followers to share their favorite chocolate chip recipes
Campaign ideas8
- Flash sale on May 15: Offer 25-30% off chocolate chip products across your site (Tate's, Cheryl's, Jacques Torres model). Drive urgency with limited-time code.
- Free cookie giveaway at retail locations (DoubleTree, Tiff's Treats, Insomnia Cookies model): No purchase required or with purchase. Create foot traffic and brand goodwill.
- Loyalty program double/triple points day: Reward repeat customers with bonus points on May 15 purchases to drive incremental sales.
- Limited edition flavor drops: Release 2-3 new chocolate chip varieties (miso, za'atar-inspired, salted caramel) for one week only around the holiday.
- Social media sweepstakes: Loyalty members who purchase on May 15 enter to win free product for a year (Dirty Dough model).
- Paired partnerships with complementary brands: Team up with coffee shops, ice cream, wine, or bakeries to create bundled deals (Barefoot Cellars + OREO model).
- Mobile food truck activation: Deploy branded truck with free samples, interactive games, and shareable photo moments in high-traffic areas.
- User-generated content contest: Ask followers to share their chocolate chip creations (cookies, brownies, baked goods) with branded hashtag for sweeps entry.
Social angles6
- "One chip wonder" angle: Share a customer's most creative chocolate chip creation. Tag them, celebrate the chip-to-cookie ratio ratio. #NationalChocolateChipDay #ChipCelebration
- Texture poll: "Soft & gooey or crispy & thin?" with visual comparison. Trending consumer data shows soft is up 54%—lean into this. #TextureWars #ChocolateChipCookieDay
- Nostalgia hook: Throwback to childhood memories. "What's your chocolate chip cookie origin story?" Stories > ads. #ChocolateChipMemories #NostalgiaFood
- Behind-the-scenes: Show your custom chocolate chip making process, ingredient sourcing, or baking techniques. Transparency builds trust. #MadeWithChocolateChips #BehindTheBake
- Social proof repost: Share customer testimonials, unboxing videos, cookie photos. Authentic = more engagement. #RealCustomers #ChocolateChipLove
- Flash deal countdown: "⏰ 24 hours left for 30% off chocolate chips. Use code CHIP15. Link in bio." Creates FOMO. #FlashSale #DealOfTheDay
Ad copy starters5
“Chip into savings. 30% off all chocolate chip cookies & mixes. May 15 only. Code: CHIP30”
“Free chocolate chip cookie. No purchase necessary. May 15 at your nearest location.”
“Soft. Gooey. Unforgettable. Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day with our limited-edition cookie drop.”
“One day. One flavor. Infinite indulgence. Shop now.”
“Your favorite holiday just got sweeter. Up to 50% off chocolate chip everything. This Friday only.”
Tips4
- Peak engagement is mid-May window—start teasing promotions by May 8. Social velocity data shows deals peak in tight window before May 15.
- Texture matters: Soft texture engagement is up 54%, gooey 32%, chewy 22%. Highlight these attributes in product descriptions and ad copy.
- Limited drops create urgency: Use limited-edition formats, oversized/shareable sizes, and BOGO mechanics to drive FOMO and higher AOV.
- Bundle beyond cookies: Chocolate chips now appear in 8 of 10 protein baking recipes, savory apps (mole, chipotle), and functional snacks. Diversify your seasonal SKU mix to capture health-conscious buyers.
It all started at a little place you may recognize the name of, the Toll House Inn! Located in Whitman, Massachusetts, it just happens to be the home of that most favorite of cookies, the chocolate chip cookie.
Ruth Graves Wakefield had originally planned on making a chocolate cookie, and decided to do so by throwing in chunks of a chocolate bar into it. In a happy accident, it turned out that the chocolate did not melt and mix with the rest of the cookie, but maintained its shape, filling the cookie with delicious little chocolate bits.
Thus was born the chocolate chip cookie, and the Toll House Cookie Company! From that day forward there have been new forms of chocolate chip added, white chocolate chip, mint chocolate, milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, even dark chocolate.
All of these varieties being added to delicious new recipes to create fantastic new treats for you to enjoy!
But it didn’t immediately go from chocolate bar to chocolate chip, there was a little innovation that happened in between first. Based off of the success of the cookies she made, Nestle agreed to add Ms. Wakefield’s recipe to their wrapper.
What did they pay her for this honor? A lifetime supply of chocolate! Sounds like an awesome deal to us too!
Nestle (and at least one other company) went on to include a chopping tool to help prepare the bars for use in cookies. That is, right up until 1941 when they started selling them as ‘chocolate chips’ or ‘chocolate morsels’.
Originally, the flavor of chocolate chips was semi-sweet. Today, we have seen so many different inventions.
Of course, semi-sweet is still as popular as ever. However, we’ve also got white and dark swirled, white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and bittersweet chocolate chips to feast on. Your imagination is the only limit when it comes to baking with this ingredient.
Enjoy Food with Chocolate Chips
Well, the first thing to do is remember that National Chocolate Chip Day isn’t just about cookies, it’s about all the things you can include chocolate chips in! Pancakes, muffins, pudding, ice cream, granola bars, pies, these are just a few of the wonderful creations you can add them to. We’ll be honest though, our favorite way to enjoy chocolate chips? By the handful out of the bag.
Include Chocolate Chips in Each Meal
If you’re really committed to the cause, though, why not add chocolate chips to all of your meals? For breakfast, add some chocolate chips to your cereal or start the day with some delicious chocolate chip pancakes! For lunch, why not add some chocolate chips to your yogurt? You can then enjoy a tasty chocolate chip muffin or chocolate chip cookie as a midday snack. And then, finish off the day with some chocolate chip ice cream after your dinner! It’s only one day of the year, so you may as well make the most of it, right? National Chocolate Chip Day TimelineLate 1930s Ruth Wakefield Creates the First Chocolate Chip Cookie At the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, Ruth Graves Wakefield chops a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar into bits and mixes them into cookie dough, creating what becomes known as the chocolate chip cookie. 1939 Nestlé Prints Toll House Cookie Recipe and Adds Scoring to Bars Responding to demand for Wakefield’s cookie, Nestlé makes a deal to print the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie recipe on its semi-sweet chocolate bar wrappers and begins scoring the bars to make them easier to break into pieces. 1941 Commercial Chocolate Chips (Morsels) Reach Grocery Shelves Nestlé begins producing ready-made semi-sweet chocolate “morsels” specifically for baking, turning the chocolate chip into a distinct, mass-produced ingredient for home cooks. [1]1963 Chips Ahoy! Brings Packaged Chocolate Chip Cookies to the MassesNabisco introduces Chips Ahoy! cookies as one of the first mass-market packaged chocolate chip cookies in U.S. supermarkets, helping make chocolate chip cookies a standard store-bought treat. 1991 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Goes Nationwide After experimenting with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough in the early 1980s, Ben & Jerry’s rolled out Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream nationwide in the United States, cementing cookie dough and chips as a popular flavor. [1]
Ruth Wakefield Creates the First Chocolate Chip Cookie
At the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, Ruth Graves Wakefield chops a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar into bits and mixes them into cookie dough, creating what becomes known as the chocolate chip cookie.
Nestlé Prints Toll House Cookie Recipe and Adds Scoring to Bars
Responding to demand for Wakefield’s cookie, Nestlé makes a deal to print the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie recipe on its semi-sweet chocolate bar wrappers and begins scoring the bars to make them easier to break into pieces.
Commercial Chocolate Chips (Morsels) Reach Grocery Shelves
Nestlé begins producing ready-made semi-sweet chocolate “morsels” specifically for baking, turning the chocolate chip into a distinct, mass-produced ingredient for home cooks. [1]
Chips Ahoy! Brings Packaged Chocolate Chip Cookies to the Masses
Nabisco introduces Chips Ahoy! cookies as one of the first mass-market packaged chocolate chip cookies in U.S. supermarkets, helping make chocolate chip cookies a standard store-bought treat.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Goes Nationwide
After experimenting with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough in the early 1980s, Ben & Jerry’s rolled out Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream nationwide in the United States, cementing cookie dough and chips as a popular flavor. [1]