Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Chocolate from Bean to Bar

flavorlab.xyz

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 62 posts

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#21

Post by jihadjihad »

This is very strange to see on HN this morning...I was bored last night while eating a piece of dark chocolate, and began wondering how exactly they make it.

I learned something fascinating: the primary thing that distinguishes "good" chocolate from "bad" chocolate, apart from taste, is the texture--more specifically, the crystal structure of tempered cocoa butter. There are in fact six different crystal forms of cocoa butter [0], each with its own unique properties. The "goal" when making good chocolate is to allow as many Type V crystals to form as possible, because they have the best properties (great texture, good snap, glossy appearance as opposed to matte, and the melting temp is higher, closer to body temp).

In order to form a majority of Type V crystals, chocolate is first melted at a high temp to wipe the slate clean, so to speak (all six crystal forms are melted). It's then cooled so that Type IV and V crystals can form, then heated again slightly to melt any remaining Type IV crystals, leaving only Type V. Wonderful stuff!

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#Tempering

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#22

Post by h2odragon »

renarl wrote: post #5
bedobi wrote: post #3

countless plant and animal species have evolved and died out throughout the history of life on Earth humans have existed only for a tiny fraction of the duration of the history of complex life on Earth but somehow humans managed to co-exist with chocolate, sugarcane, vanilla, bovids (cow milk, steak), coffee and any number of stupidly tasty things I'm not going anywhere with this comment but, like, wow, no!? if human…

Makes me wonder how many insanely taste things we are not experiencing because they went extinct or have not appeared yet. Defiantly there are way way more than the ones that we happened to overlap with.

Maybe fresh woolly mammoth tasted like ambrosia and unicorn spunk. There must have been some reason to hunt them beyond my ken; deer etc, smaller game seems much more viable otherwise.

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#24

Post by corpMaverick »

jcims wrote: post #11
have_faith wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be happy if supermarkets stocked more than one or two of the blandest varieties of most foods. There's plenty of existing tasty foods you don't get to experience.

Just had a long conversation about morel mushrooms last night. They fit nicely in this category. Hands down the best mushroom I’ve ever eaten. Probably because they look like a brain on a stick.

Just to add to your list a couple of delicacies from Mexico. Maguey worms and Escamoles(Ant eggs).

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#25

Post by corpMaverick »

nerdbaggy wrote: post #15

Rotten episode on Chocolate is really eye opening about the staggering amounts of slavery, child labor, and corruption in the chocolate industry. Basically every brand you can think of is in on it. https://www.netflix.com/title/80146284

Is there something preventing us from cultivating Cacao beans in artificial environments(e.g.green houses).

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#26

Post by estaseuropano »

bedobi wrote: post #3

countless plant and animal species have evolved and died out throughout the history of life on Earth humans have existed only for a tiny fraction of the duration of the history of complex life on Earth but somehow humans managed to co-exist with chocolate, sugarcane, vanilla, bovids (cow milk, steak), coffee and any number of stupidly tasty things I'm not going anywhere with this comment but, like, wow, no!? if human…

Its the other way around. The things we eat don't have a flavour. Flavour is created by our minds. Thus we evolved to find these things delicious, not the other way around - and this way also no surprise that there are tasty things all around us.

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#27

Post by knuthsat »

jihadjihad wrote: post #21

This is very strange to see on HN this morning...I was bored last night while eating a piece of dark chocolate, and began wondering how exactly they make it. I learned something fascinating: the primary thing that distinguishes "good" chocolate from "bad" chocolate, apart from taste, is the texture--more specifically, the crystal structure of tempered cocoa butter. There are in fact six different crystal forms of coc…

Sounds a lot like annealing.

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#28

Post by Xophmeister »

jihadjihad wrote: post #21

This is very strange to see on HN this morning...I was bored last night while eating a piece of dark chocolate, and began wondering how exactly they make it. I learned something fascinating: the primary thing that distinguishes "good" chocolate from "bad" chocolate, apart from taste, is the texture--more specifically, the crystal structure of tempered cocoa butter. There are in fact six different crystal forms of coc…

You can also do it by seeding, using chocolate with the right crystalline structure. This method is usually a lot less troublesome than the thermal shocking (tempering) approach.

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#29

Post by josefresco »

bedobi wrote: post #3

countless plant and animal species have evolved and died out throughout the history of life on Earth humans have existed only for a tiny fraction of the duration of the history of complex life on Earth but somehow humans managed to co-exist with chocolate, sugarcane, vanilla, bovids (cow milk, steak), coffee and any number of stupidly tasty things I'm not going anywhere with this comment but, like, wow, no!? if human…

I eat fruit every morning and am consistently blown away by how good these "wild" things taste. Amazing.

Re: Chocolate from Bean to Bar

#30

Post by dylan604 »

h2odragon wrote: post #22
renarl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes me wonder how many insanely taste things we are not experiencing because they went extinct or have not appeared yet. Defiantly there are way way more than the ones that we happened to overlap with.

Maybe fresh woolly mammoth tasted like ambrosia and unicorn spunk. There must have been some reason to hunt them beyond my ken; deer etc, smaller game seems much more viable otherwise.

Sure, if you want to be the wimpy kid in the group that goes for a measly deer while the rest of the group goes after a wooly mammoth, go right ahead. You will rightly deserve all of the flack the rest of the group gives. Peer pressure, boy, I don't know.
Post reply on HN