tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/dark-chocolate-5697/articlesDark chocolate – The Conversation2023-04-06T06:11:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028482023-04-06T06:11:50Z2023-04-06T06:11:50ZHere’s why having chocolate can make you feel great or a bit sick – plus 4 tips for better eating<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518983/original/file-20230403-20-jmdrkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5879%2C3907&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/delicious-easter-holiday-chocolate-bunny-eggs-1661076946">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians are <a href="https://www.retail.org.au/media/sweet-spending-boon-predicted-for-easter-retail">predicted</a> to spend around A$1.7 billion on chocolates, hot cross buns and other special foods this Easter season. </p>
<p>Chocolate has a long history of production and consumption. It is made from cacao beans that go through processes including fermentation, drying, roasting and grounding. What is left is a rich and fatty liquor that is pressed to remove the fat (cocoa butter) and the cacao (or “cocoa”) powder which will then be mixed with different ingredients to produce dark, milk, white and other types of chocolates. </p>
<p>There are several health benefits and potential problems that come in these sweet chocolatey packages. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/at-chocolate-time-weve-discovered-what-the-brands-that-score-best-on-child-labour-and-the-environment-have-in-common-201682">At chocolate time, we've discovered what the brands that score best on child labour and the environment have in common</a>
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<h2>The good news</h2>
<p>Cacao beans contain <a href="https://foodstruct.com/food/cocoa-bean">minerals</a> like iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc and phosphorus and some vitamins. They are also rich in beneficial chemicals called <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23150750/">polyphenols</a>. </p>
<p>These are great antioxidants, with the potential to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5465250/">improve heart health</a>, increase <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25164923/">nitric oxide</a> (which dilates blood vessels) and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3488419/">reduce blood pressure</a>, provide food for gut microbiota and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/7/1908">promote gut health</a>, boost the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5465250/">immune system</a> and reduce inflammation. </p>
<p>However, the concentration of polyphenols in the chocolate we eat depends largely on the cocoa solid amounts used in the final product. </p>
<p>In general terms, the darker the chocolate, the more cocoa solids, minerals and polyphenols it has. For example, dark chocolates may have around <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2011.614984">seven times more polyphenols</a> compared to white chocolates and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2011.614984">three times more polyphenols</a> compared to milk chocolates. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="selection of dark chocolate squares" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518984/original/file-20230403-18-cku8bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Dark chocolate is less likely to give you problems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/broken-slices-chocolate-close-564089023">Shutterstock</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-the-good-and-bad-of-easter-eggs-chocolate-and-hot-cross-buns-37920">Health Check: the good and bad of Easter eggs, chocolate and hot cross buns</a>
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<h2>But also some bad news</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/treat-or-treatment-chocolate-is-good-but-cocoa-is-better-for-your-heart-3084">health benefits of cocoa solids</a> are easily offset by the high sugar and fat content of modern-day chocolates. For example, milk and white chocolate eggs are on average 50% sugar, 40% fat (mostly saturated fats) – which means a lot of added kilojoules (calories). </p>
<p>Also, there may be some side effects that come with ingesting chocolate. </p>
<p>Cocoa beans include a compound called theobromine. While it has the anti-inflammatory properties responsible for some of the health benefits of chocolate, it is also a mild brain stimulant that acts in a similar way to caffeine. The mood boost it offers may also be partly responsible for how much we <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2015.00030/full?crsi=662496658&cicada_org_src=healthwebmagazine.com&cicada_org_mdm=direct">like chocolate</a>. Dark chocolate has higher theobromine compared to milk and white chocolate. </p>
<p>But accordingly, overindulging in chocolate (and therefore theobromine) may lead to feeling restless, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3672386/">headaches</a> and nausea. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-white-stuff-on-my-easter-chocolate-and-can-i-still-eat-it-181274">What's the white stuff on my Easter chocolate, and can I still eat it?</a>
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<h2>What else is in your chocolate?</h2>
<p>Milk and dairy-based chocolates may also cause stomach upset, abdominal pain and bloating in people with <a href="https://dietitiansaustralia.org.au/health-advice/lactose-intolerance">lactose intolerance</a>. This happens when we don’t produce enough lactase enzymes to digest milk sugar (lactose). </p>
<p>People with lactose intolerance can usually tolerate up to 6 grams of lactose without showing symptoms. Milk chocolate can have around <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310258/">3 grams of lactose</a> per 40 grams (the size of a standard chocolate bar). So two chocolate bars (or the equivalent in milk chocolate eggs or bunnies) may be enough to cause symptoms. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="little girl with bunny ears on and chocolate on face" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518981/original/file-20230403-24-w2xk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Lactose sensitivities tend to increase with age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-blond-girl-dirty-chocolate-bunny-1937877997">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>It’s worth noting that lactase enzyme activity dramatically declines as we age, with the highest activity in newborns and children. So lactose sensitivity or intolerance may not be such an issue for your kids and your symptoms may increase over time. Genetics also plays a major role in how sensitive people are to lactose.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6815241/">Allergic reactions</a> to chocolate are usually due to the added ingredients or cross-contamination with potential allergens such as nuts, milk, soy, and some sweeteners used in the production of chocolate. </p>
<p>Symptoms can be mild (acne, rashes and stomach pain) or more severe (swelling of the throat and tongue and shortness of breath). </p>
<p>If you or your family members have known allergic reactions, make sure you read the label before indulging – especially in a whole block or basket of the stuff. And if you or your family members do experience symptoms of an allergic reaction after eating chocolate, <a href="https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/allergic-reactions-emergency-first-aid">seek medical attention</a> immediately.</p>
<h2>4 take home tips</h2>
<p>So, if you are like me and have a weakness for chocolate there are a few things you can do to make the experience a good one.</p>
<ol>
<li>keep an eye out for the darker chocolate varieties with higher cocoa solids. You may notice a percentage on labelling, which refers to how much of its weight is from cocoa beans. In general, the higher this percentage, the lower the sugar. White chocolate has almost no cocoa solid, and mostly cocoa butter, sugar and other ingredients. Dark chocolate has 50–100% cocoa beans, and less sugar. Aim for at least 70% cocoa<br></li>
<li>read the fine print for additives and possible cross-contamination, especially if allergies might be an issue</li>
<li>the ingredients list and nutrition information panel should tell you all about the chocolate you choosing. Go for varieties with lower sugar and less saturated fat. Nuts, seeds and dried fruits are better ingredients to have in your chocolate than sugar, creme, syrup, and caramel<br></li>
<li>finally, treat yourself – but keep the amount you have within sensible limits! </li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-chocolate-when-money-really-did-grow-on-trees-196173">The history of chocolate: when money really did grow on trees</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Khalesi is supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship (Award No. 102584) from the National Heart Foundation of Australia.</span></em></p>Good things can come in chocolatey packages, but read the fine print if you want to avoid potential side effects of eating Easter treats.Saman Khalesi, Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Heart Foundation & Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead in Nutrition, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1982222023-02-06T15:32:17Z2023-02-06T15:32:17ZChocolate chemistry – a food scientist explains how the beloved treat gets its flavor, texture and tricky reputation as an ingredient<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506622/original/file-20230126-33474-ipuq4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=260%2C164%2C5030%2C3794&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In what form do you eat your annual share of the approximately 5 million tons of cocoa produced worldwide?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/chocolate-chunks-frosting-with-beaters-and-cocoa-royalty-free-image/1209981740">Tracey Kusiewicz/Foodie Photography/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether it is enjoyed as creamy milk chocolate truffles, baked in a devilishly dark chocolate cake or even poured as hot cocoa, Americans on average consume almost <a href="https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1236087/per-capita-consumption-of-chocolate-in-united-states">20 pounds (9 kilograms) of chocolate</a> in a year. People have been enjoying chocolate for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-chocolate-when-money-really-did-grow-on-trees-196173">at least 4,000 years</a>, starting with Mesoamericans who brewed a drink from the seeds of cacao trees. In the 16th and 17th centuries, both the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-chocolate-when-money-really-did-grow-on-trees-196173">trees and the beverage spread across the world</a>, and chocolate today is <a href="https://www.statista.com/forecasts/983554/global-chocolate-confectionery-market-size">a trillion-dollar global industry</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5iZjEckAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As a food scientist</a>, I’ve conducted research on the volatile molecules that make chocolate taste good. I also developed and taught a very popular college course on the science of chocolate. Here are the answers to some of the most frequent questions I hear about this unique and complex food.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hands hold a split cacao pod, displaying the seeds inside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506623/original/file-20230126-24317-g0khzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">There’s a lot of processing that happens between cacao beans in a pod and the chocolate at your table.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/fresh-red-cocoa-fruits-royalty-free-image/1067662062?adppopup=true">Gustavo Ramirez/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How does chocolate get its characteristic flavor?</h2>
<p>Chocolate starts out as a rather dull-tasting bean, packed into a pod that grows on a cacao tree. Developing the characteristic flavor of chocolate requires two key steps: fermentation and roasting.</p>
<p>Immediately after harvest, the beans are piled under leaves and <a href="https://theconversation.com/chocolates-secret-ingredient-is-the-fermenting-microbes-that-make-it-taste-so-good-155552">left to ferment for several days</a>. Bacteria create the chemicals, called precursors, needed for the next step: roasting.</p>
<p>The flavor you know as chocolate is formed during roasting by something chemists call the <a href="https://theconversation.com/kitchen-science-from-sizzling-brisket-to-fresh-baked-bread-the-chemical-reaction-that-makes-our-favourite-foods-taste-so-good-58577">Maillard reaction</a>. It requires two types of chemicals – sugar and protein – both of which are present in the fermented cacao beans. Roasting brings them together under high heat, which causes the sugar and protein to react and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2010.01984.x">form that wonderful aroma</a>.</p>
<p>Roasting is something of an art form. Different temperatures and times will produce different flavors. If you sample a few chocolate bars on the market, you will quickly realize that some companies roast at a much higher temperature than others. Lower temperatures maximize the floral and fruity notes, while higher temperatures create more caramel and coffee notes. Which is better is really a matter of personal preference.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the Maillard reaction is also what creates the flavor of freshly baked bread, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-smoky-charred-barbecue-taste-so-good-the-chemistry-of-cooking-over-an-open-flame-184206">roasted meat</a> and coffee. The similarity between chocolate and coffee may seem fairly obvious, but bread and meat? The reason those foods all smell so different is that the flavor chemicals that get formed depend on the exact types of sugar and protein. Bread and chocolate contain different types, so even if you roasted them in exactly the same manner, you wouldn’t get the same flavor. This specificity is part of the reason it’s so hard to make a good artificial chocolate flavor.</p>
<h2>How long can you store chocolate?</h2>
<p>Once the beans are roasted, that wonderful aroma has been created. The longer you wait to consume it, the more of the volatile compounds responsible for the smell evaporate and the less flavor is left for you to enjoy. Generally you have <a href="https://damecacao.com/how-to-store-chocolate/">about a year to eat milk chocolate</a> and two years for dark chocolate. It’s not a good idea to store it in the refrigerator, because it picks up moisture and odors from the other things in there, but you can store it tightly sealed in the freezer.</p>
<h2>What’s different about hot chocolate?</h2>
<p>To make powdered hot chocolate, the beans are soaked in alkali to increase their pH before roasting. Raising the pH to be more basic helps make the powdered cocoa more soluble in water. But when the beans are at a higher pH during roasting, it changes the Maillard reaction so that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2009.01455.x">different flavors are formed</a>.</p>
<p>The flavor of hot chocolate is described by experts as a smooth and mellow flavor with earthy, woodsy notes, while regular chocolate flavor is sharp, with an almost citrus fruit finish.</p>
<h2>What creates the texture of a chocolate bar?</h2>
<p>Historically, chocolate was consumed as a drink because the ground beans are very gritty – far from the smooth, creamy texture people can create today.</p>
<p>After removing the shells and grinding the beans, modern chocolate makers add additional cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is the fat that occurs in the cacao beans. But there isn’t enough fat naturally in the beans to make a smooth texture, so chocolate makers add extra.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="millstones of an industrial machine smashing cocoa powder" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506625/original/file-20230126-33788-3xo4uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Machines can pulverize the beans to a very fine texture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/millstones-of-industrial-melanger-grind-cocoa-in-royalty-free-image/1182864674">Евгений Харитонов/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>Next the cacao beans and cocoa butter undergo <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/conching">a process called conching</a>. When the process was first invented, it took a team of horses a week walking in a circle, pulling a large grinding stone, to pulverize the particles small enough. Today machines can do this grinding and mixing in about eight hours. This process <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-4549.2008.00272.x">creates a smooth texture</a>, and also drives off some of the undesirable odors.</p>
<h2>Why is chocolate so difficult to cook with?</h2>
<p>The chocolate you buy in a store has been tempered. Tempering is a process of heating up the chocolate to just the right temperature during production, before letting it cool to a solid. This step is necessary because of the fat.</p>
<p>Cocoa butter’s fat can naturally exist in six different crystal forms when it is a solid. Five of these are unstable and want to convert into the most stable, sixth form. Unfortunately, that sixth form is white in appearance, gritty in texture and is commonly called “bloom.” If you see a chocolate bar with white spots on it, it has bloomed, which means the fat has rearranged itself into that sixth crystal form. It is still edible but doesn’t taste as good.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="lighter colored circular pattern of bloom on a brown chocolate surface" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506626/original/file-20230126-35457-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Careful chocolate prep tries to hold off the most stable – but undesirable – version of the fat in cocoa butter, which is called bloom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bloomed-chocolate-royalty-free-image/92094613">nbehmans/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>You can’t prevent bloom from happening, but you can slow it down by heating and cooling the chocolate through a series of temperature cycles. This process causes all the fat to crystallize into the second-most stable form. It takes a long time for this form to rearrange itself into the white, gritty sixth form.</p>
<p>When you melt chocolate at home, you break the temper. The day after you’ve created your confection, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-white-stuff-on-my-easter-chocolate-and-can-i-still-eat-it-181274">the chocolate usually blooms</a> with an unattractive gray or white surface.</p>
<h2>Is chocolate an aphrodisiac or antidepressant?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/mondays-medical-myth-chocolate-is-an-aphrodisiac-4980">short answer is, sorry, no</a>. Eating chocolate may make you feel happier, but that’s because it tastes so good, not because it is chemically changing your brain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sheryl Barringer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s a lot of interesting science behind the fermenting, roasting, grinding and melting that turns chocolate into the bars, bonbons and baked goods you know and love.Sheryl Barringer, Professor of Food Science and Technology, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215042019-08-16T04:14:43Z2019-08-16T04:14:43ZNo, eating chocolate won’t cure depression<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288093/original/file-20190815-136190-1d6p0b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1000%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If you're depressed, the headlines might tempt you to reach out for a chocolate bar. But don't believe the hype.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elderly-person-eating-sweets-173815130?src=J4SYOBmC2mFq6Ig9LKj6UQ-1-21">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent study published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/da.22950">Depression and Anxiety</a> has attracted <a href="https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/dark-chocolate-could-boost-mood-study-c-378548">widespread media attention</a>. Media reports <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=chocolate+depression&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYuqGh14PkAhXX73MBHRnOAysQ_AUIEygD&biw=1522&bih=687">said</a> eating chocolate, in particular, dark chocolate, was linked to reduced symptoms of depression.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1159459341696716800"}"></div></p>
<p>Unfortunately, we cannot use this type of evidence to promote eating chocolate as a safeguard against depression, a serious, common and sometimes debilitating mental health condition.</p>
<p>This is because this study looked at an <em>association</em> between diet and depression in the general population. It did not gauge causation. In other words, it was not designed to say whether eating dark chocolate <em>caused</em> a reduction in depressive symptoms.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-causes-depression-what-we-know-dont-know-and-suspect-81483">What causes depression? What we know, don’t know and suspect</a>
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</em>
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<h2>What did the researchers do?</h2>
<p>The authors explored data from the United States <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm">National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey</a>. This shows how common health, nutrition and other factors are among a representative sample of the population. </p>
<p>People in the study reported what they had eaten in the previous 24 hours in two ways. First, they recalled in person, to a trained dietary interviewer using a standard questionnaire. The second time they recalled what they had eaten over the phone, several days after the first recall.</p>
<p>The researchers then calculated how much chocolate participants had eaten using the average of these two recalls.</p>
<p>Dark chocolate needed to contain at least 45% cocoa solids for it to count as “dark”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-memory-9035">Explainer: what is memory?</a>
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</em>
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<p>The researchers excluded from their analysis people who ate an implausibly large amount of chocolate, people who were underweight and/or had diabetes. </p>
<p>The remaining data (from 13,626 people) was then divided in two ways. One was by categories of chocolate consumption (no chocolate, chocolate but no dark chocolate, and any dark chocolate). The other way was by the amount of chocolate (no chocolate, and then in groups, from the lowest to highest chocolate consumption).</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mondays-medical-myth-chocolate-is-an-aphrodisiac-4980">Monday's medical myth: chocolate is an aphrodisiac </a>
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</em>
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<p>The researchers assessed people’s depressive symptoms by having participants complete a short questionnaire asking about the frequency of these symptoms over the past two weeks.</p>
<p>The researchers controlled for other factors that might influence any relationship between chocolate and depression, such as weight, gender, socioeconomic factors, smoking, sugar intake and exercise.</p>
<h2>What did the researchers find?</h2>
<p>Of the entire sample, 1,332 (11%) of people said they had eaten chocolate in their two 24 hour dietary recalls, with only 148 (1.1%) reporting eating dark chocolate.</p>
<p>A total of 1,009 (7.4%) people reported depressive symptoms. But after adjusting for other factors, the researchers found no association between any chocolate consumption and depressive symptoms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288094/original/file-20190815-136186-kvk3wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Few people said they’d eaten any chocolate in the past 24 hours. Were they telling the truth?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chocolate-bar-foil-on-gray-background-329714852">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, people who ate dark chocolate had a 70% lower chance of reporting clinically relevant depressive symptoms than those who did not report eating chocolate.</p>
<p>When investigating the amount of chocolate consumed, people who ate the most chocolate were more likely to have fewer depressive symptoms.</p>
<h2>What are the study’s limitations?</h2>
<p>While the size of the dataset is impressive, there are major limitations to the investigation and its conclusions. </p>
<p>First, assessing chocolate intake is challenging. People may eat different amounts (and types) depending on the day. And asking what people ate over the past 24 hours (twice) is not the most accurate way of telling what people usually eat.</p>
<p>Then there’s whether people report what they actually eat. For instance, if you ate a whole block of chocolate yesterday, would you tell an interviewer? What about if you were also depressed?</p>
<p>This could be why so few people reported eating chocolate in this study, compared with what <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/07/22/the-worlds-biggest-chocolate-consumers-infographic/#718514644847">retail figures</a> tell us people eat.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/these-5-foods-are-claimed-to-improve-our-health-but-the-amount-wed-need-to-consume-to-benefit-is-a-lot-116730">These 5 foods are claimed to improve our health. But the amount we'd need to consume to benefit is... a lot</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>Finally, the authors’ results are mathematically accurate, but misleading.</p>
<p>Only 1.1% of people in the analysis ate dark chocolate. And when they did, the amount was very small (about 12g a day). And only two people reported clinical symptoms of depression and ate any dark chocolate.</p>
<p>The authors conclude the small numbers and low consumption “attests to the strength of this finding”. I would suggest the opposite.</p>
<p>Finally, people who ate the most chocolate (104-454g a day) had an almost 60% lower chance of having depressive symptoms. But those who ate 100g a day had about a 30% chance. Who’d have thought four or so more grams of chocolate could be so important? </p>
<p>This study and the media coverage that followed are perfect examples of the pitfalls of translating population-based nutrition research to public recommendations for health. </p>
<p>My general advice is, if you enjoy chocolate, go for darker varieties, with fruit or nuts added, and eat it <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-dont-yet-fully-understand-what-mindfulness-is-but-this-is-what-its-not-110698">mindfully</a>. — <strong>Ben Desbrow</strong></p>
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<h2>Blind peer review</h2>
<p>Chocolate manufacturers have been a good source of <a href="https://forbetterscience.com/2016/05/19/chocolate-is-good-for-your-funding/">funding</a> for much of the <a href="https://www.foodpolitics.com/2015/10/heres-why-food-companies-sponsor-research-mars-inc-s-cocoavia/">research</a> into chocolate products.</p>
<p>While the authors of this new study declare no conflict of interest, any whisper of good news about chocolate attracts publicity. I agree with the author’s scepticism of the study.</p>
<p>Just 1.1% of people in the study ate dark chocolate (at least 45% cocoa solids) at an average 11.7g a day. There was a wide variation in reported clinically relevant depressive symptoms in this group. So, it is not valid to draw any real conclusion from the data collected.</p>
<p>For total chocolate consumption, the authors accurately report no statistically significant association with clinically relevant depressive symptoms. </p>
<p>However, they then claim eating more chocolate is of benefit, based on fewer symptoms among those who ate the most.</p>
<p>In fact, depressive symptoms were most common in the third-highest quartile (who ate 100g chocolate a day), followed by the first (4-35g a day), then the second (37-95g a day) and finally the lowest level (104-454g a day). Risks in sub-sets of data such as quartiles are only valid if they lie on the same slope.</p>
<p>The basic problems come from measurements and the many confounding factors. This study can’t validly be used to justify eating more chocolate of any kind. — <strong>Rosemary Stanton</strong></p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/research-check-25155">Research Checks</a> interrogate newly published studies and how they’re reported in the media. The analysis is undertaken by one or more academics not involved with the study, and reviewed by another, to make sure it’s accurate.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Depression is a serious, common and sometimes debilitating condition. And no, chocolate won’t help, whatever the headlines tell you.Ben Desbrow, Associate Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473112015-10-14T08:50:34Z2015-10-14T08:50:34ZCraft chocolate shakes up industry as its sweet season begins<p>Earlier this month, thousands of eager lovers streamed through the doors of the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle, on the stunning waterfront of Puget Sound. Their love had one all-consuming object: chocolate.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://nwchocolate.com/">Northwest Chocolate Festival</a>, the country’s leading consumer event for all things chocolate, is now in its seventh year. Since its Seattle debut in 2010, when around 2,000 visited, attendance has swelled fivefold. And the number of vendors has surged as well, as the chocolate industry goes through a seismic shift that some are describing as its renaissance thanks to the strong growth of craft products. </p>
<p>Not only are craft chocolate-makers developing loyal followings, but, like in the craft beer industry, consumers themselves are becoming closely involved in how the products are made, which often determines whether they buy a bar or not. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98379/original/image-20151014-15131-1u831yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98379/original/image-20151014-15131-1u831yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98379/original/image-20151014-15131-1u831yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98379/original/image-20151014-15131-1u831yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98379/original/image-20151014-15131-1u831yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98379/original/image-20151014-15131-1u831yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98379/original/image-20151014-15131-1u831yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Chocolate lovers this way!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosietulips/15274212699/in/photolist-pxXC7R-pyeELa-pwctCW-pyedia-pyeyYt-pgJkhP-pgKzsi-pyeBzF">RosieTulips/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Chocolate season begins</h2>
<p>In Seattle during the first week of October, nearly 10,000 happy tasters roamed exhibition halls, education centers and a culinary kitchen theater over two chocolate-filled days. </p>
<p>And the feeling of chocolate abundance is likely to last. </p>
<p>The Northwest Chocolate Festival kicks off what has become a national “season of chocolate” in the US. It is a welcome – if frantically busy – relief for small chocolate businesses, many of which operate in the red from about May or June through the end of September: the <a href="http://www.ecolechocolat.com/blog/boost-summer-chocolate-sales/">summer chocolate dead zone</a>.</p>
<p>During these months, hot weather poses a challenge for storing and shipping chocolate, which complicates retail sales. Compounding this is the “bikini season scare”: long-held assumptions (however <a href="http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/top-11-chocolate-myths">thin the evidence</a>) that even a bite of chocolate will unalterably expand the waistline.</p>
<h2>The seismic shift in chocolate</h2>
<p>Then comes the surge. Retail sales across the board <a href="http://www.statista.com/topics/991/us-christmas-season/">spike during the holidays</a> – with nearly a fifth of annual sales happening in November and December – but chocolate enjoys a much longer season. It begins when the weather turns crisp and our bodies start to crave the fat-sugar combination, and then rides a recurring wave through virtually every major US holiday: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day, Passover and Easter.</p>
<p>But the season of chocolate is not just about quantity of sales; the market is also undergoing a major shift in type, quality and variety of chocolate bars and confections on offer. Interest in chocolate – both making and eating it – has grown exponentially in the past 15 years. For almost the whole of the 20th century, a few major brands dominated the US market for chocolate, many of them enduring and beloved (<a href="http://www.hersheys.com/kisses/">Hershey’s Kisses</a>, <a href="http://www.mms.com/">Mars m&m’s</a>). But in 1997, a new chocolate company opened its doors in the San Francisco Bay Area. <a href="http://www.scharffenberger.com/our-story/history/">Scharffen Berger</a> was the first bean-to-bar maker – starting from cocoa beans and manufacturing finished bars – to enter the market in decades.</p>
<p>Scharffen Berger was the first of many to come. A handful of new makers followed, including Shawn Askinosie of <a href="https://askinosie.com/">Askinosie Chocolate</a>, Steve DeVries of <a href="http://www.devrieschocolate.com/">DeVries Chocolate</a>, Alex Whitmore of <a href="http://www.tazachocolate.com/">Taza Chocolate</a>, Art Pollard of <a href="http://www.amanochocolate.com/">Amano Artisan Chocolate</a>, Alan McClure of <a href="http://patric-chocolate.com/">Patric Chocolate</a> and Colin Gasko of <a href="http://roguechocolatier.com/">Rogue Chocolatier</a> – the vanguard of today’s chocolate renaissance.</p>
<p>When I became director of education for the Northwest Chocolate Festival in 2010 (a position I held for four years, through the 2013 event), these men were among my first invitees to share their expertise as event speakers, along with about half a dozen other new makers who had sprung up by that time. In 2013, I surveyed the market again, for a <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2013.13.3.22">research article for Gastronomica</a>, and verified 37 bean-to-bar makers operating commercially in the US. This past August, as part of a comprehensive market assessment, I documented 137 such companies. </p>
<p>In just two years, the number of “craft” or “artisan” chocolate-makers, as they have come to be known, has skyrocketed. And with this market shift has come an equally impressive rise in US consumer knowledge of where chocolate comes from and how it is made.</p>
<h2>Chocolate with a story</h2>
<p>What is striking is how influential education has become to the sales of these chocolate bars. From my analysis of the new craft market, savvy consumers now want more than just a piece of chocolate. They expect that makers will also share its story: which farmers grew the cocoa, how the maker crafted the bar, what flavor profile to expect. Buying craft chocolate now involves buying this knowledge as well as the bar itself.</p>
<p>This storytelling happens in a few different places, the foremost being packaging: bar wrappers increasingly provide information about the cocoa source, or even the trade terms between maker and farmer. </p>
<p>Another is awards. As festivals and expert groups develop connoisseur methods for sorting out the technically excellent chocolate from the simply good or sub-par, chocolate lovers are paying attention. When a bar <a href="http://onegoldenticket.blogspot.com/">wins an award</a> at the Northwest Chocolate Festival, as <a href="http://www.tastefruition.com/collections/products">Fruition Chocolate</a> did this year for its Bourbon Aged Dark Milk 61% and <a href="http://www.dicktaylorchocolate.com/">Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate</a> for its Limited Release <a href="http://www.dicktaylorchocolate.com/shop/limited-release-70-bolivia-alto-beni">70% Bolivia Alto Beni</a>, makers can only hope they brought enough inventory to Seattle. </p>
<p>“Anything that wins an award sells out on the first day of the festival,” said Brian Cisneros, Northwest Chocolate Festival Founder and executive director.</p>
<h2>From trees to tastebuds</h2>
<p>A third cross between sales and education happens in face-to-face encounters between customers and chocolate-makers. </p>
<p>Many craft chocolate-makers operate, at least at first, on a shoestring budget, and can lack a dedicated retail space. Often the maker sells chocolate personally, at festivals, farmers markets or pop-up venues. Such interactions are an opportunity for consumers to pose questions and ask for detailed information. When they are satisfied with the answers, they buy chocolate. </p>
<p>Upon giving a successful talk at one of the 80-plus educational events at this year’s Northwest Chocolate Festival, chocolate-makers had to rush back to their booths to sell bars to the flock of eager customers trailing in their wake. The ability to impart knowledge of cocoa origins, trade ethics or even the mechanics of making chocolate has become an unmistakable driver of sales.</p>
<p>The fascinating part of all this is not that people buy what they understand, but that customer knowledge is already feeding back into the industry and inspiring further innovation. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.charmschoolchocolate.com/">Charm School Chocolate</a> founder Joshua Rosen acknowledges that a high level of consumer knowledge continually drives his company to surpass its own standards for both flavor and trade ethics. </p>
<p>“We built our company on the idea of ethics of a very high standard,” Rosen said. “But our customers have been phenomenally well-educated [and know] how incredibly important it is for companies like us to take those extra steps. It not only gives us a little bit of validation that we’re doing the right thing, but it even pushes us to go one step farther, to meet and exceed expectations. Customer knowledge is driving that in a big way.”</p>
<p>What this means is that the season for chocolate is extending far beyond the annual hot-weather dip and holiday rush. The hunger not only for chocolate, but for educated discussion around this food, is pushing the market toward new horizons of excellence. </p>
<p>In the seasons to come, I believe chocolate lovers will understand this food even more profoundly than they already do and continue to bridge the distance that lies between farmers and trees, factories and finished bars, and our tastebuds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Leissle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The number of chocolate-makers has exploded as consumers become ever more involved in the process from bean to bar.Kristy Leissle, Lecturer, University of Washington, BothellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/441192015-07-28T10:21:02Z2015-07-28T10:21:02ZRacing the melt: the quest for heat-resistant chocolate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89698/original/image-20150724-8468-1mn9snz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How to keep chocolate from becoming a river of goo? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melting chocolate via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I was conducting fieldwork on the chocolate industry in Ghana in 2005, I satisfied my cravings with <a href="http://www.goldentreeghana.com/ourproducts.html">Golden Tree chocolate bars</a>. The brand was local, made with a fraction of Ghana’s enormous cocoa output by the Cocoa Processing Company in the coastal town of Tema. </p>
<p>Air-conditioned shops at petrol stations usually carried the <a href="http://www.goldentreeghana.com/ourproducts-chocovarieties.html">brightly wrapped bars</a>, especially in cities. But mostly it was women at roadside stalls or children who wove through traffic, transacting through car windows, who sold the chocolates.</p>
<p>As a chocolate lover, I enjoyed eating Golden Tree. As a researcher, I was intrigued by a particular quality: the chocolate never melted. Despite an <a href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/geography/climate.php">average daily temperature</a> of nearly 80 Fahrenheit (26 Celsius), Golden Tree chocolates retained their precise edges and pointed corners. This was a mystery, as the labels listed cocoa butter as the only fat.</p>
<p>So how did they do it? The global chocolate industry, whose <a href="http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/global-chocolate-market.asp">value</a> is expected to climb to nearly US$100 billion by 2016, would dearly love to know.</p>
<h2>Melts in your mouth</h2>
<p>Chocolate is compelling to the human palate partly because cocoa butter, the natural fat of the bean, melts at just below our body temperature, around 93F (33-34C). If you hold chocolate in your hand, it <em>ought</em> to melt. Obviously most of us would rather the chocolate melted in our mouths – hence the famous Mars <a href="http://www.adslogans.co.uk/site/pages/gallery/the-milk-chocolate-melts-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand.8416.php">M&M slogan</a> and <a href="http://www.mms.com/">candy shells</a>, designed to prevent premature melting. But this melting property of cocoa butter gives chocolate its distinctive mouth-feel, covering our taste buds thickly and evenly. We <em>feel</em> as well as taste.</p>
<p>The manufacturing step that keeps cocoa butter stable until it does reach our mouths is <a href="http://chocolatealchemy.com/illustrated-tempering/">tempering</a>. Cocoa butter fat crystallizes in six forms, and only the fifth of these produces the ideal shine and pleasing “crack” of fresh chocolate. Stored properly at room temperature, this form will maintain for a long time: dark chocolate generally has a two-year best-by date, and milk chocolate, one (due to the dairy). In my experience, these are conservative estimates. I have much older chocolate in my cupboard that remains unmelted and shiny. </p>
<p>However, if the chocolate heats up and then cools, the fat crystals break apart. The chocolate “blooms”: cocoa butter rises to the surface, creating a yellowish sheen or even a <a href="http://chocolatealchemy.com/alchemists-notebook-tempering-and-molding/">thick-ish layer of fat</a>. It’s still edible, but obviously not very nice to look at, and bloom throws the texture off.</p>
<h2>Blooming chocolate</h2>
<p>In air-conditioned stores across North America and Europe, chocolate bars sit at checkout counters and retain their temper. But in hotter climes, selling chocolate is a persistent challenge. </p>
<p>For the global candy companies, which rely upon impulse buys that happen near the cash register, product visibility is key. This kind of placement is impossible when a shop is not air-conditioned. My experience in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is that chocolate either sits melting on a shelf or is at best buried in a chest freezer. There it remains unseen unless a shopper opens the freezer door.</p>
<p>Even in Africa’s mega-cities, which have better distribution infrastructure, finding in-temper chocolate is a challenge. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-nigerias-plans-for-a-dream-eldorado-city-are-not-radical-enough-44874">Lagos, Nigeria</a>, where I live part-time, I buy imported chocolate from stores with modest air-conditioning and regular shipments. I <em>always</em> find a thin sheen of cocoa butter bloom on these bars. Somewhere between factory and store shelf, the cold chain failed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89511/original/image-20150723-22836-9lc7xe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89511/original/image-20150723-22836-9lc7xe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89511/original/image-20150723-22836-9lc7xe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89511/original/image-20150723-22836-9lc7xe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89511/original/image-20150723-22836-9lc7xe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89511/original/image-20150723-22836-9lc7xe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89511/original/image-20150723-22836-9lc7xe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Slightly bloomed chocolate, purchased in Lagos, Nigeria.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In short, keeping chocolate shiny and shaped like a bar is not easy. It requires a comprehensive cold chain, from refrigerated trucks to display cases that both maintain temper and offer high visibility. In rural areas, this cold chain must extend to villages where electricity is often lacking. </p>
<p>During my doctoral research, I interviewed rural shopkeepers in Ghana’s Ashanti and Western regions. For the most part, they chose not to stock chocolate, even though we were in the heart of cocoa-growing country. Chocolate that melted at higher temperatures might be a more attractive inventory for these shopkeepers. </p>
<p>This, in turn, could make chocolate more readily available to farmers themselves. Though they spend their lives growing cocoa, most farmers cannot afford to buy expensive chocolate bars for sale in towns and cities. A cheap, heat-resistant chocolate that stayed fresh in rural shops might make it possible for cocoa farmers to enjoy chocolate, too.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89699/original/image-20150724-8474-ykrnyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89699/original/image-20150724-8474-ykrnyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89699/original/image-20150724-8474-ykrnyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89699/original/image-20150724-8474-ykrnyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89699/original/image-20150724-8474-ykrnyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89699/original/image-20150724-8474-ykrnyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89699/original/image-20150724-8474-ykrnyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A chocolate-y morale booster for GIs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Army Quartermaster Foundation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Chocolate on the battlefield</h2>
<p>Early innovations in heat-resistant chocolate did not focus on farmers, but on the armed forces. In 1937, Hershey began developing a heat-resistant bar for the US Army, which resulted in the Field Ration D. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.hersheyarchives.org/essay/details.aspx?EssayId=26">Hershey Community Archives</a>, “It has been estimated that between 1940 and 1945, over three billion ration units were produced and distributed to soldiers around the world.” The corporation eventually received the <a href="http://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/a/army-navy-e-award.html">Army-Navy E Award</a> – given to companies that have “achieved outstanding performance on war production” – for creating the heat-resistant bar. </p>
<p>As Joël Glenn Brenner documents in <a href="https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=3jNgPwAACAAJ&dq=emperors+of+chocolate&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAGoVChMIm7GeyY_vxgIVwlwUCh1lgwSR">Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars</a>, the longstanding battle between these two chocolate giants for US market dominance has also played out as a rivalry for military supply contracts. This prompted further research into heat resistance as conflict moved to the sweltering Middle East over the 20th century.</p>
<p>Indeed, Glenn Brenner opens her book with the crisis that looms in Mars’ Middle East operations on the eve of the first Gulf War in 1990. As Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the ensuing panic threatened Mars’ regional distribution network. At the time, Glenn Brenner notes, the region brought in sales revenue of $40 million. Those Snickers bars were not heat-resistant and, with distribution compromised, sales seemed doomed.</p>
<p>Ironically, the same conflict that threatened the fragile inventory ultimately supplied an alternative market: Mars sold the candy to arriving British and American armed forces. At the same time, the company enjoyed its real coup over Hershey. Mars was already supplying the armed forces with heat-resistant M&Ms. Though Hershey’s Desert Bar received US <a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-06-26/features/1991177079_1_chocolate-bars-make-the-bar-candy-bar">media attention</a> during the Gulf War, the soldiers were eating Mars candy.</p>
<h2>Growing demand for heat-resistant chocolate</h2>
<p>Today, the target consumers for heat-resistant chocolate are civilians in emerging markets. These markets hold enormous potential. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=czfGH2Cbv-gC&pg=PR10&dq=chocolate+fortunes&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMIz8iW5JDvxgIVBLwUCh0f3Qf4#v=onepage&q=chocolate%20fortunes&f=false">Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China’s Consumers</a>, Lawrence L Allen documents the fierce competition among Cadbury, Hershey, Mars, Nestlé and Ferrero for the one billion potential customers in China. By 2008, he noted, “annual retail chocolate sales in China [were] approaching $1 billion” (p.203).</p>
<p>Seven years later, emerging chocolate markets include not just China but the Indian subcontinent, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Indo-Pacific. Euromonitor predicts that the combined markets for chocolate across Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa will surge more than 50% to $48 billion by 2019, Bloomberg Business recently <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-25/barry-callebaut-develops-chocolate-that-won-t-melt">reported</a>. The fastest growth rates are predicted for the Middle East and Africa. These are places where cold chains are least developed. Hence, the solution to chocolate distribution lies in its melt.</p>
<h2>Cracking the secret to heat resistance</h2>
<p>As the taste for chocolate moves beyond the temperate zones and emerging chocolate markets swell, the quest for higher chocolate melting points has become more intense. </p>
<p>As Bloomberg <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-25/barry-callebaut-develops-chocolate-that-won-t-melt">reported</a>, Barry Callebaut, one of the world’s largest chocolate-makers, can make a bar that remains stable at up to 100F. Nestlé, Hershey and Mondelez International also have heat-resistant projects in the works. Meanwhile, researchers at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences <a href="http://news.psu.edu/story/353476/2015/04/16/research/researchers-discover-gene-controls-melting-point-cocoa-butter">announced</a> in April their discovery of the gene that determines cocoa butter’s melting point. If this gene can be manipulated, it may mean another route to heat-resistant chocolate. </p>
<p>Back in Ghana, I eventually gained entry to the Cocoa Processing Company factory in Tema. I had a tour of areas that made semi-finished products, including cocoa butter. But when we reached the section that made Golden Tree chocolate, I was told that no visitors were allowed. Instead, my guide led me back to reception, where I viewed a film on how they made their chocolate confections. I never did discover how Golden Tree became nonmeltable.</p>
<p>But the achievement is likely to be replicated on a much larger scale, and soon. As researchers and scientists race toward this engineering feat, the result will one day be a planet covered in chocolate – sharp and square, in its most pleasing form, and ready to melt where it ought: in our mouths.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Leissle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chocolate-makers have been trying to find a way to keep chocolate from melting at higher temperatures for years.Kristy Leissle, Lecturer, University of Washington, BothellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/379202015-03-30T04:17:40Z2015-03-30T04:17:40ZHealth Check: the good and bad of Easter eggs, chocolate and hot cross buns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76407/original/image-20150330-25085-1bx3vew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The average 80-gram hot cross bun contains 1,070 kilojoules.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quintanaroo/2417349652">Emilie Hardman/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians love Easter but it seems we love Easter eggs more, spending more than <a href="http://ausfoodnews.com.au/2013/03/14/australians-will-spend-more-than-3-billion-on-easter-chocolate-and-other-food-research-shows.html">A$185 million on chocolate</a> over the holiday break. </p>
<p>Painted or dyed eggs were given traditionally at Easter to symbolise new life. Chocolate Easter eggs first appeared early in the 19th century, followed by hollow Easter eggs <a href="https://www.cadbury.com.au/About-Chocolate/The-Story-of-Easter-and-Easter-Eggs.aspx">in 1875</a>, when manufacturing advances allowed chocolate to flow into moulds.</p>
<p>These days we don’t have much restraint when it comes to eggs made out of chocolate, but how many regular hen eggs are okay to eat? And what about the other Easter favourite: the hot cross buns?</p>
<h2>Hen eggs</h2>
<p>Two recently published reviews examined research on the relationship between egg consumption and risk of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23676423">heart disease</a> and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23643053">diabetes</a>. They found that people who consumed the most eggs (six or more per week) had a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who consumed the least (one egg or less per week). </p>
<p>While the reviews disagree on whether egg consumption increases the risk of heart disease in the general population, they both found that people with diabetes who consumed a lot of eggs had a greater risk of developing heart disease. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76408/original/image-20150330-25053-1topy8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76408/original/image-20150330-25053-1topy8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76408/original/image-20150330-25053-1topy8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76408/original/image-20150330-25053-1topy8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76408/original/image-20150330-25053-1topy8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76408/original/image-20150330-25053-1topy8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76408/original/image-20150330-25053-1topy8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ditch the bacon and go for poached, not fried.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/8974463945">Alpha/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, recent research shows that it is what you eat <em>with your eggs</em> that matters most. In a study of 19,000 adults in the United States, eating eggs was associated with eating more fast foods (think egg and bacon breakfast muffins) and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25527676">having a bigger waist</a> circumference. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25225349">systematic review</a> of breakfast patterns found people who consumed bacon and eggs for breakfast had higher total daily energy intakes, while in another study those who ate poached eggs for breakfast had lower total daily energy intakes. So how you cook your eggs matters too.</p>
<h2>Chocolate</h2>
<p>Although the jury is out on whether <a href="https://theconversation.com/mondays-medical-myth-chocolate-causes-acne-6934">chocolate causes acne</a> until better studies are done, it appears there are some health benefits from eating chocolate. </p>
<p>One team of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22653982">Australian researchers</a> looked at whether it would be cost effective for those at risk of metabolic syndrome to eat dark chocolate in order to combat heart disease. Wishful thinking, you might say. </p>
<p>They found <em>some</em> benefit, but GPs shouldn’t start writing scripts for chocolate just yet. They estimated that you would have to have 10,000 people eat 100 grams of dark chocolate a day (which is a lot) for over ten years in order to lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol enough to prevent 85 heart attacks and strokes. And that’s a best-case scenario. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22301923">large review</a> of 42 studies that lasted up to four months, researchers found some health benefits, such as reduced blood pressure, in studies where people drank cocoa drinks (21 trials), ate dark or milk chocolate (15 trials) or had other cocoa products.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76410/original/image-20150330-25053-2hm2xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76410/original/image-20150330-25053-2hm2xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76410/original/image-20150330-25053-2hm2xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76410/original/image-20150330-25053-2hm2xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76410/original/image-20150330-25053-2hm2xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76410/original/image-20150330-25053-2hm2xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76410/original/image-20150330-25053-2hm2xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australians spend more than A$185 million on chocolate over the holiday break.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/the-travelling-bum/5654123903">Adam Wyles/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When trials were added together in a meta-analysis there were significant but small improvements in blood flow (measured by flow-mediated dilatation, which indicates how flexible your blood vessels are), both two hours after consuming chocolate or cocoa and in the studies that lasted up to four months. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22895979">Cochrane review</a> also found that consuming chocolate and cocoa reduced blood pressure by two to three millimetres of mercury (2-3 Hg) in short-term studies over only two weeks.</p>
<p>But they concluded that longer-term evaluations were needed to assess the impact of chocolate on outcomes such as the incidence of heart attacks and stroke.</p>
<h2>Hot cross buns</h2>
<p>Hot cross buns used to be baked only on Good Friday, as a symbol of good luck or to ward off evil. These days they begin to appear in supermarkets before you have packed away the Christmas tree. </p>
<p>Hot cross buns are made from refined white flour, so there is no good news there. The protective qualities of grains in terms of reducing your risk of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24158434">type 2</a> diabetes, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22166190">heart disease and colon cancer</a> have only been found for the regular consumption of whole grains. </p>
<p>If you love hot cross buns, you could justify eating a few extra ones by citing the anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-tumour and anti-diabetes properties of spices such as <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20924865">cinnamon</a>.</p>
<p>But consider this: the average 80-gram hot cross bun contains 1,070 kilojoules. When you add one teaspoon of margarine (135kJ) and two teaspoons of jam (160 kilojoules), this takes it up to about 1,365 kilojoules. </p>
<p>To walk off the kilojoules in that tasty bun you will need to take about 8,200 steps. That will give you plenty of time to get out in the fresh air and enjoy your time off over Easter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clare Collins receives funding from NHMRC, ARC, National Heart Foundtion of Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia Human Nutrition Research Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Campbell Arnotts, Horticulture Australia Limited and consults to Novo Nordisk.</span></em></p>Australians love Easter but it seems we love Easter eggs more, spending more than A$185 million on chocolate over the holiday break.Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/370852015-02-13T10:43:02Z2015-02-13T10:43:02ZLabels of love: how to choose chocolate for your Valentine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71635/original/image-20150210-24704-1pcb42b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artisanal, free trade, fair trade organic? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s that time of year when the stakes can feel very high when choosing a chocolate for your sweetie. Yet the options are more bountiful and confounding than ever. </p>
<p>Valentine’s Day chocolates in a growing number of stores are no longer limited to that familiar box of gooey, heart-shaped candies. Visit the sweets section of a Whole Foods or similar grocery store and you will see dozens of new and attractive chocolate bars stretching down the aisle, beckoning and bewildering in their variety. </p>
<p>Beyond mere deliciousness, many of them also claim a world-changing agenda, bearing a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/11/money-organic-chocolate-idUSL1N0VK37W20150211">dizzying array of labels</a>: Fairtrade, direct trade, Rainforest Alliance, IMO Fair for Life, American, bean to bar, raw, handmade, craft, artisan – to name just a few.</p>
<p>These fall, broadly, into two distinct groups. The first is the <a href="http://grist.org/food/a-guide-to-ethical-chocolate/">ethical trade labels</a> (Fairtrade, direct trade, Rainforest Alliance, IMO Fair for Life), which aim to introduce economic and often environmental sustainability or improvement into the industry for cocoa farmers, whose work is underpaid and tenuous. The second comprises those labels that say something about the chocolate-making process itself (American, bean to bar, raw, handmade, craft, artisan). Generally these labels mean that the maker has turned cocoa beans into chocolate bars on a small scale, with attention to the differences between each batch — as distinct from mass-produced candies that are made to taste the same, every time we eat one. </p>
<p>Choosing from either category can send a message to both your loved one and the chocolate industry: that, as a consumer, you demand high standards for chocolate, either in fairness or quality. Faced with such a wide variety of labels, however, inevitable questions arise: is there any real difference between these labels and claims, or are they all simply marketing hype? And what does it mean to be artisanal?</p>
<h2>What makes an artisan</h2>
<p>Based on my studies of chocolate marketing, I have found many differences among these labels. <a href="http://www.fairtrade.net">Fairtrade</a>, for example, guarantees a minimum price, as well as a social premium per ton of cocoa purchased. The former introduces stability to farmer income in a market where prices can fluctuate wildly, while the latter provides additional funds, which are generally used for development projects in farming villages. Direct trade also pays a premium, but also makes it a priority to maintain close and mutually supportive relationships with farmers over time, with regular visits between chocolate makers and cocoa producers. This means the trade relationship happens between actual people who know one another and does not get reduced to numbers on spreadsheets or items in a company budget. </p>
<p>But what has become in some ways more important to me, especially around the big chocolate holidays, is less the (sometimes fine) distinctions among these labels, and more what the labels say about the different marketing strategies pursued by the global chocolate giants. That is, Hershey, Mars, Cadbury and Nestle, which <a href="http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/why-so-little-candy-variety-blame-the-chocolate-oligopoly/">have dominated the industry</a> for more than a century.</p>
<p>To illustrate: my current work examines the use of the term “artisan” by <a href="http://www.amanochocolate.com/">new chocolate makers</a> and compares this with the historical meaning of the word. I am looking for similarities and differences between the definition – who actually is an artisan? – and how this word is used to sell chocolate.</p>
<p>Historically, an artisan was a person who spent long years as apprentice to a master, training in a craft, and “graduated” only when that master said the trainee was ready. </p>
<p>Because the twentieth century was so thoroughly dominated by a few chocolate companies, who guarded their manufacturing secrets quite closely, <a href="http://www.c-spot.com/chocolate-census/">opportunities for chocolate apprenticeship vanished</a> in the US. And yet, starting in 1997, when Scharffen Berger began marketing its chocolate as artisanal, the number of makers calling themselves “artisan” grew at an astonishing rate.</p>
<h2>How chocolate artisans learn their craft</h2>
<p>With no formal apprenticeship structure, where, I wondered, were these people learning to make chocolate? And how could they call themselves “artisans” if there was no one to evaluate whether they had mastered the craft? </p>
<p>I went into this research presuming that the word “artisan” on chocolate bars was essentially a marketing device; this came partly from my observations that many makers seemed to experience a learning curve only <em>after</em> their chocolate had debuted widely, improving in flavor and texture over time.</p>
<p>I have found other evidence for the marketing power of the term and continue to study what it means as new self-proclaimed artisan makers appear on the US market. In my initial consumer surveys, for example, chocolate lovers associate the term with having passion for chocolate making, rather than formal training in the craft. Furthermore, my initial review of these data suggests that consumers translate “passion” for the job into good flavor. So the word “artisan” seems to “sell” a delicious chocolate eating experience, which may or may not be true.</p>
<p>And yet, I also see that “artisan” is one label among many that, taken together, are doing important educational work in the chocolate industry. As the great variety of labels makes clear, new makers are working hard to make their chocolate stand out from the rest, but they all seem to share a goal of deeper engagement with this food. By advertising their bars with these labels, they are also asking that consumers join them in this work.</p>
<h2>What’s in a label</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.divinechocolate.com/us">Some makers</a> focus on the ethics of trade, using websites and product packaging to bring us <a href="https://askinosie.com/">images and stories</a> of farmers who grow cocoa. <a href="http://roguechocolatier.com/">Others</a> are passionate about cocoa bean strains, whose variety rivals that of wine grapes, and bring out the flavors of different harvests in their chocolates. </p>
<p>A few are keen to make us aware of the <a href="http://frescochocolate.com/pages/how-we-make-chocolate">complex mechanical process</a> of creating a chocolate bar. And a small but growing number are committed to keeping the value of chocolate-making with the farmers, by locating <a href="http://www.madecasse.com/our-story/">chocolate factories</a> close to the cocoa fields. </p>
<p>Each time we encounter a chocolate bar that makes some honest and open claim about its production, we have an opportunity to learn about this food. Purchasing these kinds of chocolate bars – bars that are really trying to teach us something about this supply chain, at whatever point the maker feels most capable of intervening – allows us to make a statement that we want to understand what we are eating.</p>
<h2>For the love of chocolate</h2>
<p>My research has suggested that the global chocolate giants are not, as they are sometimes portrayed, willfully perpetrating evil in the world. But I can confidently say they do not provide consumers with enough information about their product and process to help us make mindful chocolate purchases. The product packaging for major chocolate candies – Hershey’s Kisses, Mars Milky Way, Nestle Crunch, for example – gives no indication that this food once grew on a tree, or that a farmer was involved in its production. These brands are sold on the strength of their recipe – a consistent taste over time – rather than information about where the cocoa came from, who grew it, or how it got from the farm to the factory. </p>
<p>As small-batch, “neighborhood” chocolate makers rise in number, no matter what label they choose, they are collectively working towards providing that information. </p>
<p>And this education at least opens the door to a future of equity, in which cocoa farmers would be better paid for their work, and chocolate eaters willing to pay a price that reflects its true value. In such a world, of course, we would not need any labels at all.</p>
<p>So buy your chocolate with love for Valentine’s Day, by buying it thoughtfully. Read the labels, and all the information they provide, and choose one that feels right. </p>
<p>We are not going to change the world in one holiday, or even a decade of Valentine’s Days. But we will take the first step to a more just chocolate world if we take the time to know this food, and to understand all the skill and sweat and sacrifice that went into bringing it from a tree to our hands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Leissle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s that time of year when the stakes can feel very high when choosing a chocolate for your sweetie. Yet the options are more bountiful and confounding than ever. Valentine’s Day chocolates in a growing…Kristy Leissle, Lecturer, University of Washington, BothellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.