Chocolate News

Happy International Chocolate Day! September 13, 2020

 

A brief history of chocolate – and some of its surprising health benefits

THECONVERSATION.COM

Chocolate in all its forms is something that we like to indulge in on an almost daily basis. But chocolate as it’s enjoyed today is quite different from when it first arrived in Europe from South America around the 16th century. Click, here, to learn of its history and surprising health benefits.

Cadbury reveals we’ve been eating chocolate wrong for years

BIRMINGHAMMAIL.CO.UK

Cadbury. the chocolatier, based in the West Midlands and owned by US confectionery giant Mondelez, who is a regular fixture in any convenience store, supermarket or corner shop, has some advice for us. Namely: stop storing its iconic products in the fridge.

Why does chocolate need to be tempered?

THETAKEOUT.COM

Most of the chocolate consists of cocoa solids, sugar, and milk solids that are emulsified with cocoa butter—the fat extracted from cocoa beans that, when crystallized, gives the chocolate its physical structure. When melted, these crystals are broken apart, and all those components separate into microscopic clumps. When the chocolate recrystallizes and solidifies once more, it’s nothing more than a shadow of what it once was: grainy, crumbly, discolored, and utterly disappointing.  If melted chocolate is going to reset into the gorgeous, glossy dessert covering it was meant to be, it needs to be “tempered.” Tempering chocolate is the process of controlled cooling and agitation that creates teeny, tiny crystals that are evenly sized and arranged in perfect alignment. And the good news is that all this microscopic mumbo jumbo is easy to do at home, even if you’ve never worked with chocolate before.

A new type of milk chocolate may contain the health benefits of dark chocolate – without the bitter taste

INSIDER.COM

Creamy, delicious milk chocolate is one of the most beloved treats worldwide. But with that appealing taste comes a hefty amount of sugar (and fat), making milk chocolate far less healthy than its more bitter counterpart, dark chocolate. There may be a way to boost the nutritional value of milk chocolate without sacrificing flavor, according to research presented at the American Chemical Society’s 2020 conference. The new, higher antioxidant form of milk chocolate can be made by recycling food scraps that would otherwise go to waste, such as coffee grounds, discarded tea leaves, and peanut skins.