Scientists Develop Chocolate That Won't Melt At High Temperatures

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Scientists Develop Chocolate That Won't Melt At High Temperatures

Posted by samzenpus on Monday December 3, 2012 @03:34AM from the melt-in-an-oven-not-in-your-hand dept.

Zothecula writes "One of life's less pleasant surprises is discovering the chocolate bar that you forgot you had in your pocket on a hot day. Two scientists working at Cadbury's research and development plant in Bourneville, U.K., are fighting that gooey surprise with the invention of chocolate that remains solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 C (104 F) for more than three hours. Aimed at tropical markets, the 'temperature tolerant chocolate' is described in a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) patent application."

47 of 161 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

New slogan by oodaloop · 2012-12-03 03:37 · Score: 2

Melts in your Mouth. Not in your pocket.

--
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
1. Re:New slogan by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-03 03:39 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Except that it wouldn't melt in your mouth and thus probably also be less delicious than normal chocolate.
2. Re:New slogan by uncanny · 2012-12-03 03:39 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  chocolate that remains solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 C (104 F) for more than three hours
  If your mouth is 104 F you might want to see a doctor!
3. Re:New slogan by paiute · 2012-12-03 03:44 · Score: 2
  
  Melts in your Mouth. Not in your pocket.
  Melts in an oven. Not in your intestines.
  
  --
  If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
4. Re:New slogan by timeOday · 2012-12-03 03:47 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Except that it wouldn't melt in your mouth and thus probably also be less delicious than normal chocolate.
  RTA:
  
  The problem was that making a chocolate bar that wouldn't melt wasn't hard. What was hard was to make one that people still wanted to eat. The military bars didn't melt and they were nutritious, but they were difficult to eat and they didn't taste very good. Thatâ(TM)s because the usual way to keep chocolate from melting was to either add fillers like oat flour and swap the cocoa butter for other fats, which made it taste like a candle, or adding water or glycerol to encourage sugar crystal formation, which made it gritty. Cadbury's approach is...
  
  Well, I won't spoil it for you.
5. Re:New slogan by Lumpy · 2012-12-03 04:07 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You got it' It's why others that invented it years ago did not market it. It change the taste and mouth feel of chocolate. Test groups did not like it.
  This is not a new invention, Back in 2009 another company already announced it.
  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2540765/Scientists-develop-new-type-of-chocolate-which-does-not-melt-in-the-mouth.html
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
6. Re:New slogan by NatasRevol · 2012-12-03 04:38 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I worked with/on Hershey's Desert Bar. In 1990.
  http://www.hersheyarchives.org/essay/details.aspx?EssayId=39
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonliebigstuff/7290674224/
  It was processing the egg whites to withstand structural changes at higher temps.
  I put one in a flame on a gas stove. It burned, did not melt.
  They were tolerable to eat, but not great. Much like last year's halloween candy.
  
  --
  There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
7. Re:New slogan by bhartman34 · 2012-12-03 05:34 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I think you're missing an important point of physics: If it won't melt at 104F, it won't melt at 98.6F, either, which is the problem. :)
8. Re:New slogan by cellocgw · 2012-12-03 05:42 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  My wet-blanket reply of the day follows.
  The primary mechanism for chocolate breakup in your mouth is dissolving (and some early enzymatic breakup), not melting. If you really waited around for even soft chocolates to melt at 37-ish degrees Celsius, you would not have a good time.
  What would matter to the consumers of this new chocolate,then, would be its texture and dissolution rate, not its melting temperature.
  
  --
  https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
9. Re:New slogan by jfengel · 2012-12-03 05:57 · Score: 2
  
  I had some of those bars, from mid-80s MREs. They were just awful: as one friend put it "the more you chew it, the bigger it gets".
  If you thought of them as more akin to Tootsie Rolls than chocolate, they weren't so bad (though I'm not a fan of Tootsie Rolls, either).
10. Re:New slogan by MarkGriz · 2012-12-03 06:33 · Score: 2
  
  Ok, new slogan
  "Tastes like shit, but at least it doesn't melt in your hands"
  
  --
  Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
11. Re:New slogan by Anonymous+Matt · 2012-12-03 07:00 · Score: 2
  
  Cadbury's approach is...
  Well, I won't spoil it for you.
  Aw, man. I had to click on the article.
12. Re:New slogan by crispin_bollocks · 2012-12-03 07:41 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  In the 70s, friends in Ecuador used to occasinally send us candy. Mostly chocolate bars w.peanuts, and pressed coconut w/cocoa.. The chocolate bars were tolerant of higher temperatures and had a different mouth feel. Not bad, just different (and delicious).
13. Re:New slogan by drinkypoo · 2012-12-03 11:31 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  My preference is Theo or Kalila 85% +
  Just in case you need to know, Ghirardelli is still good, Droste is still good, Lindt is now shit. This is relevant if you're looking for gourmet chocolate in a supermarket.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
14. Re:New slogan by rubycodez · 2012-12-03 16:30 · Score: 2
  
  we already have the cream fileed suffle that lasts on the order of geological time, the twinkie. The only long term threat to twinkes is proton decay, if such exists.
Can't wait to try it by ShooterNeo · 2012-12-03 03:38 · Score: 3, Interesting

From TFA : Temperature tolerant chocolate has been around since the 1930s, but it sucks because it becomes too hard and tastes bad.
I can't wait to try a bar of this stuff and compare it to the normal kind. Obviously, since it doesn't melt in your mouth, it won't be the same, but if it is soft and easy to chew, and disolves in saliva, maybe the eating experience will be similar.
Personally, I find the most enjoyable chocolate to be Hershey's Symphony bars that have been frozen.
1. Re:Can't wait to try it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-03 03:57 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Personally, I find the most enjoyable chocolate to be Hershey's Symphony bars that have been frozen.
  If your favorite chocolate is Hershey's anything, the only explanation is that you've never tasted chocolate.
  Hershey's chocolate isn't chocolate. I'm not saying this in an elitist, "it's so bad you can't consider it chocolate way." I mean, they don't use cacao, which is definition of chocolate.
Unless you have a high fever, chewing crayons by jbridges · 2012-12-03 03:39 · Score: 2

Not going to melt in your mouth unless you have a high fever.
So it's going to be like chewing on chocolate flavored crayons.
1. Re:Unless you have a high fever, chewing crayons by sjames · 2012-12-03 06:53 · Score: 2
  
  Fats don't dissolve in water.
Feature not Bug! by tempmpi · 2012-12-03 03:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

Exactly: chocolate melting almost exactly at body temperature is a feature not a bug.

--
Jan
1. Re:Feature not Bug! by aurispector · 2012-12-03 03:57 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Not to mention that we developed anti-melting chocolate technology during WW2 called "M&Ms".
  
  --
  I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
2. Re:Feature not Bug! by rwise2112 · 2012-12-03 04:56 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It's actually stolen technology: Smarties
  
  --
  
  "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
3. Re:Feature not Bug! by Meneth · 2012-12-03 06:21 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Copied, not stolen.
4. Re:Feature not Bug! by aix+tom · 2012-12-03 09:45 · Score: 2
  
  Not when you are eating the new iChocolate!
  With a built-in non-swappable battery that heats it to 120 C ( 248 F ) while in your mouth so that it melts?
Obligatory Warning by Cruciform · 2012-12-03 03:42 · Score: 5, Funny

If your chocolate bar remains hard for more than four hours, please see a confectioner.
Mandatory reading for all chocolate threads by paiute · 2012-12-03 03:47 · Score: 2

The book for chocolate nerds: http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperors-Chocolate-Inside-Hershey/dp/0767904575

--
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
My life is now complete by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2012-12-03 03:48 · Score: 2

Although, unfortunately, I can't say I've ever forgotten about a chocolate bar that's in my possession.

--
#DeleteChrome
110F chocolate already exists, and I've made it by MaxToTheMax · 2012-12-03 03:51 · Score: 3, Interesting

And Cadbury was already licensing the technology, IIRC. I read the recipe in a magazine years ago (apparently invented by some schoolkids) and actually made it. The trick is to melt the chocolate down, mix in a little glycerine, and let it set again. It works pretty well, although my chocolate is pretty soft even when it's not melted. Could be I did it wrong.
a less pleasant surprise by sribe · 2012-12-03 03:52 · Score: 2

Is when that's not chocolate in your pocket after all ;-)
Re:1st Iraq war???? by vlm · 2012-12-03 03:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

You'd have found it was just a remake of the WWII era tropical bars. I ate a couple (of the modern remakes, I was in .mil in the 90s). It was icky.
You know how cheap american chocolate (Hersheys) is like room temperature brown colored Crisco? The tropical stuff was basically the same stuff but a texture / mouth feel more like refrigerated brown Crisco.
I imagine this "invention" is about the 4th generation re-invention. Food science is just like IT, every decade or two, the same old ideas get lipstick and a new dress on the old pig and a big announcement about the new baby, while the old timers roll their eyes, not that crap again....

--
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Melting by MyLongNickName · 2012-12-03 03:55 · Score: 2

Isn't one of the "good" characteristics of chocolate is that it begins to melt in your mouth? If it doesn't melt at 104F, I don't see it melting in my mouth.

--
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Shatters when cold by docilespelunker · 2012-12-03 03:59 · Score: 4, Informative

Taking chocolate to the other extreme, dunking it in liquid nitrogen makes it shatter. I learnt a lesson that should not be repeated... Don't eat cryo cooled chocolate. When it shatters in your mouth it's like having a mouth full of cold knives. However after a while and some whimpering it did melt - so hurrah for melty chocolate!
Mexico already has this by Billy+the+Mountain · 2012-12-03 03:59 · Score: 2

I thought that was the idea behind Nestle's Don Carlos V. Ten years ago I bought some in Mexico and left the bars in the car but they remained solid. Also, this chocolate is not gritty and is available in the U.S. (At least in some markets)

--
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
Re:What do you think we have now? by magic+maverick+ · 2012-12-03 04:07 · Score: 3, Informative

Exactly. I'm living in a tropical (African) country, and have eaten both Indian Cadbury's (they call it "Silk") chocolate, and the local stuff. The Cadbury stuff is better, but still not as good as, say, Australian Cadbury chocolate. The local stuff is cheap and nasty, but also won't melt in your pocket. All the imported stuff just gets really soft if you leave it out at room temperature. Room temperature here is normally about 25 to 30 degrees.
Personally, I just keep chocolate in the fridge. It just works. And if I'm going somewhere I don't have a fridge, I just don't take chocolate, there are heaps of alternatives for sweet thing.

--
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Re:Does it taste better than a D-Bar? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-12-03 04:15 · Score: 2

I don't know whether I should be less surprised by the fact that mil-spec chocolate exists or by the fact that it doesn't taste all that good. :-)

--
Ezekiel 23:20
This sounds as scary as... by realsilly · 2012-12-03 04:20 · Score: 3, Funny

McDonald's french fries that do not spoil.

--
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
Great for clogging arteries by Squidlips · 2012-12-03 04:21 · Score: 2

Mmm yum. Better food through science...
The Hostess Void by guttentag · 2012-12-03 04:33 · Score: 2

It's interesting that we're suddenly seeing all these stories about engineered foods that don't behave like real food so soon after the collapse of Hostess. It's almost as though there is a perception that the world will be more accepting of new food-substitutes that last forever to fill "the Hostess void" and take the place of the Twinkie in our bomb shelters. Perhaps we will find that the new 60-day bread maintains a constant temperature of 105 degrees F, hot enough to ward off mold and melt the new chocolate, so you can have Nutella in your bunker. Because the comforts of chocolate offset the creepiness of bread that toasts itself.
This is a conspiracy... by Synerg1y · 2012-12-03 04:34 · Score: 2

To bring obesity to tropical countries!
this is clearly false by Chirs · 2012-12-03 04:43 · Score: 4, Informative

If you look at a Hershey chocolate bar, it does in fact have "chocolate" listed in the ingredient list, which is by definition made from cacao.
I shall sculpt the prior-est art by hyades1 · 2012-12-03 04:55 · Score: 2

Slow-melting chocolate vibrators. My idea. MINE!

--
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Re:1st Iraq war???? by Dr_Barnowl · 2012-12-03 05:46 · Score: 3, Interesting

Hershey's tastes like brown paraffin wax.
I had a bar of Dairy Milk for the first time in a long while last week. It too was like wax. I suspect that quality has suffered since Kraft bought them out.
I stopped liking their mainstream products anyway - the cocoa solids content, at only 22%, isn't really worthy of the name "chocolate", but at least the mouth feel was OK previously.
They also own Green & Blacks, who produce some very nice everyday chocolate. Their milk starts at 34% cocoa solids, and they do bars all the way up to 70% and 80%.
Better Eating through Chemistry by outofluck70 · 2012-12-03 06:12 · Score: 2

Pooping is overrated anyway.
No mention of predicessors by evilviper · 2012-12-03 06:32 · Score: 2

Through the entire article, and up-voted slashdot comments, not a single mention of the WWII era TROPICAL BAR?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_chocolate#The_Tropical_Bar

--
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Re:1st Iraq war???? by smg5266 · 2012-12-03 06:56 · Score: 2

Another Hershey purchase was Dagoba chocolates. Their 87% is excellent
Chocolate Palace by RivenAleem · 2012-12-03 07:05 · Score: 2

Can I have a Chocolate palace now Mr Wonka?
Re:Heat Tolerant Chocolate by TapeCutter · 2012-12-03 10:14 · Score: 2

Whats the point of candy that won't melt in your mouth?
I take it you don't have noisy children...

--
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.