Youve probably heard the old joke that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.

In the minds of some people, that idea is all too real.

Just to avoid any confusion right off the bat chocolate milk is just regular milk that has been mixed with chocolate syrup or cocoa powder.

But a survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy found that 7 percent of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, spokeswoman Lisa McComb confirmed to HuffPost.

Food and Wine covered the survey on June 1, but the statistic went viral on Thursday after the Washington Post published its report on the findings.

One problem its tough to gauge the surveys reliability. Its possible, for instance, that some people were simply trying to be funny while answering the question.

McComb told HuffPost the survey was conducted by market researching group Edelman Intelligence and polled 1,000 people.

Responses came from all 50 states, and the regional response breakdown was fairly even, with a slight uptick (approx. 10% higher) in the South, McComb said in an email.