About fifteen years ago, the author discovered an interesting activity in some materials that Malcolm Swan from the Shell Centre (University of Nottingham, UK) had developed for the English National Curriculum Council in 1991. The activity, one which has been used by several presenters in professional development workshops in Australia in recent years, involves sharing chocolate in a problem solving context. In this article, the author describes one way that he uses this exercise with teachers and middle school students: the chocolate block task. This task allows an exploration of the construct of fractions that is very useful but often neglected. The reader is invited to try any of the problems given in this article with individuals, small groups, or the entire class, and to explore their potential for assessing and developing student understanding, leading to a broader, more connected, and applicable notion of fractions. (Contains 3 figures.)