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January 11, 2006
So you want to be a chocolate snob?
Robert Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, explains how to talk the talk of dark chocolate snobbery in a column on washingtonpost.com.
It all starts with cacao (kah-KAY-oh), not cocoa, beans. Cacao beans are the seeds of the fruit of the tropical tree Theobroma cacao. (Theobroma literally means "food of the gods," a name obviously chosen by a chocophile botanist.)...
The article goes on to explain the meaning of the percentages printed on chocolate wrappers, the mathmatics of calculating these percentages, and the typical ingredients of quality dark chocolate.
The percentage number on a bar's wrapper represents the bar's weight that actually comes from the cacao bean; that is, it's the bar's content of honest-to-goodness cacao bean components. Natural cacao beans contain 54 percent fat by weight; the other 46 percent, as with most seeds, is solid vegetable matter. Thus, the percentage number on the wrapper of a chocolate bar is the sum of its cacao fat (called cocoa butter in the United States) and its cacao solids.
Fascinating information, indeed, but hardly the essense of real snobbery. Where is the pretentiousness of a Paris Hilton or the audacity of an Ann Coulter? Real snobbery is about attitude, after all. Talking numbers unfortunately will only make you a bit of a chocolate geek.
"Chocolate by the Numbers" on washingtonpost.com
Last updated on January 11, 2006 8:51 AM
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