The higher the cocoa butter concentration, the smoother the chocolate? Don't be fooled

Audit expert: Wang Guoyi

Postdoctoral fellow in Nutrition and Food Safety, China Agricultural University

Everyone must be familiar with chocolate, with its shiny appearance and rich aroma. Put it gently in your mouth and the warmth of your tongue will make it melt instantly. The silky taste and slightly bitter aroma are like caressing delicate silk with your tongue. The smooth touch is simply irresistible.

Source: Wikipedia

So where does this silky texture come from? What are the secrets behind this candy that has become popular all over the world? Let's find out.

Where does the silkiness come from?

There are three types of chocolate on the market: dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. The main ingredients of dark chocolate are cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar, milk chocolate has additional milk powder to increase the flavor and reduce the bitterness, and white chocolate does not contain cocoa but has milk powder. Although the ingredients of the three are slightly different, they all contain cocoa butter, which is also the key ingredient for chocolate to produce a silky taste .

Source: pexels

Cocoa butter has a homogeneous polymorphism phenomenon, and it will form oil crystals with various structures under different crystallization conditions. Cocoa butter contains various crystal forms under natural conditions, so when processing chocolate, it is necessary to artificially adjust the temperature of the chocolate, also known as "tempering" . This step is to melt the chocolate and melt the crystal forms with unstable structures and low melting points, and then recrystallize under specific conditions to form more stable crystal forms.

Tempered chocolate will have the brightest color and the best hardness and brittleness. The cocoa butter in it is also in a relatively stable state, and its melting point rises to 34.5℃, which is slightly lower than the temperature of the human mouth. In order to study the deep reasons why chocolate can produce such a silky touch, a research team from the University of Leeds in the UK used bionic materials and 3D printing technology to make a highly simulated tongue probe.

The researchers conducted an experiment using dark chocolate with different cocoa butter contents on the market. The results showed that when chocolate is first put into the mouth, the cocoa butter on the surface of the chocolate has a lubricating effect, effectively reducing the friction on the tongue surface. Since cocoa butter can fill the tiny gaps between the cocoa particles inside the chocolate, the surface of the mixture is uniform and smooth, making the chocolate taste smoother.

Source｜Insights into the Multiscale Lubrication Mechanism of Edible Phase Change Materials

The experiment also found that the fat content in the chocolate has little effect on the result, while the solid cocoa particles play an important role in the taste. Therefore, as long as a reasonable formula is adopted, only a small amount of cocoa butter can be used to make chocolate with a silky taste, which not only reduces production costs, but also makes it healthier in people's eyes due to its lower fat content.

The many flavors of chocolate

In addition to its silky taste, chocolate is also impressive for its unique aroma. The raw material for making chocolate, cocoa beans , contains 53-58% fat. When processing them, especially during baking and grinding, the fat will undergo the Maillard reaction at high temperature, producing a rich aroma unique to the fat.

Source: Wikipedia

In addition, cocoa also contains a small amount of volatile aromatic substances, such as trimethylbutyraldehyde, vanillin and some heterocyclic aromatic compounds. These compounds combine to form the unique fragrance of chocolate. When you smell it, you will feel that the smell is mellow and gentle, which makes people relax, and it is even more memorable when you eat it.

Cocoa fruit source | Wikipedia

In addition, pure dark chocolate has a slight bitter taste, but this bitter taste does not make people unhappy, but makes people energetic. The bitter taste comes from the several xanthine derivatives contained in cocoa, namely theobromine, caffeine and theophylline. These substances are highly effective adenosine antagonists that can prevent adenosine from binding to receptors, making people's nerves excited. It is precisely because of this magical effect that foods or beverages containing these xanthine derivatives are highly praised by people. The most well-known ones are tea, coffee and cocoa, the world's three major beverages.

From cocoa to chocolate

Before cocoa was processed into chocolate and became popular all over the world, cocoa beans were a precious seasoning in the society of Native Americans, and were even circulated as currency in the society. They would grind cocoa beans into powder, add water and chili peppers and other seasonings to make a drink. Its powerful refreshing effect made them regard it as a gift from the gods. It was not until the 16th century that the Spanish fleet arrived in America and brought this bitter and refreshing drink back to Europe. From then on, cocoa began to circulate in the upper class of Europe. They were not used to the bitter taste of the drink, so they added sugar and milk to neutralize it. This was also the foundation version of various chocolate drinks later.

Source: pexels

In 1828, Dutchman Van Houten invented the technology to neutralize the acid in cocoa beans, solving the problem of overly acidic beverages. In 1847, British businessman Fry began to process cocoa beverages into solids, namely chocolate, and began large-scale production in 1866. Subsequently, after continuous improvement and optimization by various businessmen, the quality of chocolate became higher and higher, and the taste gradually became richer. Finally, it swept the entire world and became a favorite snack for countless people.

Cocoa beans themselves are sour, astringent and bitter, but the chocolate made from them is so smooth and sweet. In addition to lamenting the diverse properties of cocoa beans themselves, we have to say that greedy humans are really good at going to great lengths to satisfy their cravings.