With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we thought it would be fun to share a little sweet science. Chocolate has long been associated with the holiday of love, but did you know there is actual scientific reasoning for why we love chocolate?
3. Chocolate can “bloom.” You know when you open a package of chocolate that’s been sitting on the shelf for awhile and it has some white shmutz on it? This is called “bloom,” and it happens when, over time, fat (cocoa butter) molecules suspended inside the chocolate bar rise to the surface and recrystallize. “Bloomed” chocolate is not dangerous to eat, but it will be dry and less flavorful than the original product.
4. Chocolate is a “polymorph.” No, this doesn’t mean it can take the form of broccoli or 12-grain bread. But it does mean that there are multiple ways – VI, to be precise (they’re given Roman numerals) – to arrange the particles of chocolate in its solid phase. The most desirable is polymorph V (5), which is stable enough for that pleasant “crack,” but still fluid enough to have that delicious melt-in-your-mouth feeling that we all crave. See this article for more on polymorphs.
5. Chocolate is cool(er than us). In its optimal form (polymorph form V), chocolate’s melting point is around 35 degrees Celcius. This is just below the average temperature inside the human body. The slight difference is the scientific reason why chocolate melts in that sloooow, delectable way: it’s warm enough to melt, but not so warm as to liquify on contact.