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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2004  > August  >
Chemistry for Everyone
Products of Chemistry
Chocolate: A Marvelous Natural Product of Chemistry
Ginger Tannenbaum
Fairfield, OH 45014
Cover
August 2004
Vol. 81 No. 8
p. 1131
Abstract
Chocolate is a natural product as ubiquitous as television. Of course, it is eaten, but it is also found in air fresheners, marking pens, flavoring in a multitude of products including soda pop, and as an aroma in "chocolate-dyed" T-shirts. However, most of us are completely unaware of the complex chemical reactions that take place to produce chocolate and the necessary technology that has evolved to produce chocolate and all its byproducts. Processing results in a mixture of many components, an interesting contrast to most of the simple, one-step reactions introduced at the high school level. This article is a survey of chocolate from tree to table. After a brief introduction to the history of chocolate and how and where it is grown, the manufacturing process is examined, and the chemistry is explored. A bit of the jargon used in the industry is mentioned. Cocoa butter is a significant ingredient in chocolate, and an investigation of it introduces triglycerides, fatty acids, polymorphic behavior, and molecular packing of the fats in chocolate and how they affect the tempering process. There is a brief discussion of chocolate's non-Newtonian behavior and the resulting challenges presented in the manufacturing process.

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More Information
*  Citation
 Tannenbaum, Ginger. J. Chem. Educ. 2004 81 1131.
*  Keywords
 Consumer Chemistry; Food Science; General Chemistry; Introductory / High School Chemistry; Natural Products
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 June 17, 2004
August 10, 2004
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