Bonus: Chocolate - Food of the gods

In this week’s episode, in honor of Valentine’s Day and National Heart Month we explored the health benefits of red wine. And what goes best with red wine? Dark chocolate. In this bonus episode we review the various forms of chocolate and taste a few that you too can enjoy - with your red wine – or any other beverage you choose. Yum!

Shownotes: yournutritionprofs.com

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Transcript

In this week’s episode, in honor of Valentine’s Day and National Heart Month we explored the health benefits of red wine. And what goes best with red wine? Dark chocolate. In this bonus episode we review the various forms of chocolate and taste a few that you too can enjoy with your red wine – or any other beverage you choose. Yum!

M: I’m Professor Megan  

S: and I’m Professor Susan, and we’re

 Both: Your Nutrition Profs! 

M: We are registered dietitians and college professors who have taught more than 10,000 students about health and nutrition. We have answered a LOT of questions about nutrition over the years – 

S: Some we get asked every year and some are rarely asked but very interesting.

M: We’re here to share our answers to these common (and uncommon) nutrition questions with you.

S: So bring your curiosity and let’s get started.  

Both: Welcome to our class!

M: Did you know that Americans reportedly consume 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate each year? Chocolate is a $127.9 billion industry.  

S: Wow, I believe it! I’ve definitely contributed my share to the $128 billion! 

S: So let’s talk about types of chocolate. 

M: Alright, well not all chocolate is created equal. There are several different varieties starting with its precursor, cacao. Straight cacao is just that- cacao “beans” minus the shell and the pulp and nothing else.  

S: And the beans can be purchased raw, as crushed up pieces or nibs, or it can be powdered.  

M: Cacao becomes cocoa once the beans are roasted. But a lot of sources use the terms pretty much interchangeably. 

S: Right. Chocolate liquor (spelled L-I-Q-U-O-R) is created by grinding roasted cacao beans into a smooth, liquidy paste with nothing else added. It doesn't actually contain any alcohol and is naturally just over 50% cocoa butter (or fat). So this would be considered pure chocolate. 

M: Bitter chocolate also known as baking chocolate or unsweetened chocolate is a solid made from pure chocolate liquor that typically has little to no sugar added (but that is not always the case).  

S: It’s used in baking and is rarely consumed by itself. 

M: Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate also called dark chocolate and it must contain at least 35% chocolate liquor but can have widely varying amounts of added cocoa butter and sugar. So this is the most versatile of all the chocolates.  

S: Milk chocolate is a mixture of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, milk, and sugar. It must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor and 12% whole milk. Milk was first added to chocolate in the late 17th century. Nestle modernized it in 1867 to the milk chocolate we know and love today. And this is the most common type of chocolate consumed in the U.S.  

M: The last type of chocolate, white chocolate, is actually not technically a “real” chocolate. It’s a blend of cocoa butter, milk, and sugar and does not contain any chocolate liquor or cocoa solids.  

S: Imposter! So if we’re going to summarize this up…from most pure to least we would have cacao nibs, chocolate liquor made from roasted cacao nibs, bitter/baking/unsweetened chocolate, semisweet/bittersweet/dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate which really isn’t chocolate at all. Do I have that right?

M: Right. It’s complicated, isn’t it? 

S: It is complicated… like a lot of things we talk about on this podcast. 

M: Well we went out and got some chocolate bars. We have 5 different varieties that we are going to share with you. Well… 

S: Share with each other… 

M: And tell you about it! We’re going to start with milk chocolate.  

S: OK. So we have one that’s called Divine milk chocolate and it is 20% cocoa. 

M: It’s 26% cocoa. 

S: It’s 26% cocoa and it says it is seriously smooth milk chocolate. Let’s try it. 

M: Let’s see if that’s true. A perfect square.   

S: Alright, here we go. It’s pretty good.  

M: It really is- it’s melting in my mouth.  

S: It tastes like milk chocolate.  

M: It’s really good. It is seriously smooth. 

S: That was pretty good. 

M: I agree. 

S: … for milk chocolate. It tastes a little bit better I think than maybe a Hershey's bar? 

M: I agree. I agree. 

S: But it maybe too that it’s just because I know it’s more expensive. So I think it’s going to taste better. 

M: That could be. 

S: In a blind taste test I might not be able to tell the difference. 

M: Ok, well next up we have Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips and these are 60% cacao or dark chocolate.

S: It’s not melting as easily. 

M: Definitely not. 

S: You have to chew these.  

M: But I love them.  

S: These are my favorite chocolate chips.

M: I’ve had these before. We’ve definitely had these before. These are amazing. 

S: But it is a lot less sweet than the milk chocolate. 

M: It is but I wouldn’t say it’s bitter.

S: No I wouldn't either and I will say I’ve used these for baking a lot and they melt beautifully. 

M: Me too. Yeah, me too. 

S: Ok so the third kind we have is called Tony’s Chocolonely 70% dark chocolate. So this is a really kind of a thick bar.  

M: Yeah it is. 

S: Oh my gosh. 

M: Teamwork! 

S: wow, OK that was kind of hard to break. 

M: Thank you. Oh that’s a big piece.  

S: Oh, I can’t even break it. 

M: You can do it.  

S: Alright.  

M: Look at you. 

S: Ok, so this one. This is 70% 

M: It’s pretty thick…. The bar. 

S: It is. It’s probably a half inch thick. 

M: It’s also good. 

S: It’s very good. It’s not as bitter as I was expecting.  

M: It is a little bit more bitter than the Ghirardelli. But I mean, bitter might not even be the right word. 

S: Yeah, it tastes slightly different. It’s good though. I would definitely eat it again. I bet it melts beautifully. And it’s a big thick chocolate bar. Ok. 

M: Alright. 

S: That is the 70% dark chocolate. Now we have- this is called Organic Theo 85% pure dark and it’s darker in color. They are tending to get darker in color as we go. 

M: They are. 

S: Ok, oh my gosh those are big. Whoops we dropped one. 

M: I’m really glad our mascot, Sheldon isn’t in here. 

S: That’s right, we’d be scrambling. 

M: Oh my goodness. 

S: Ok, sobthis is the 85% pure dark.  

M: It’s definitely more bitter. 

S: Agreed. 

M: But I like it.  

S: Not as sweet.  

M: I like it. 

S: On the label, it says “It’s called dark chocolate but it can brighten anyone’s day.” 

M: Alright. 

S: It was good. I think it would be- like I don’t think I could eat this whole chocolate bar.  

M: No I could not.  

S: It would be a little bit at a time. 

M: I could probably eat the first three versions, I could eat a whole bunch in one sitting. 

S: Agreed.   

M: Alright, so our last bar we have to try is Endangered Species and it’s 88% dark chocolate. 

S: That’s dark. 

M: That’s very dark.  

S: Oh it has a little animal on it. 

M: Awww. 

S: Elephants 

M: I was about to say, “is that an elephant?”  

S: I think it is. 

M: Alright so 88%.

S: 88%. Here goes. You know, if I didn’t know it was chocolate, I’m not sure that - I mean it has the texture of chocolate, but it’s not sweet.

M: It’s not sweet at all. But you know my first thought was it’s not very bitter. The bitterness sort of comes on. 

S: That’s true. It does sort of develop at the end.  

M: My first thought was like “Oh this doesn't seem like it’s very bitter.” 

S: I think compared to the others it definitely is more bitter. So the bitterness increased as we went from the 26% to the 88%. Although the first three, the 26%, the 60%, and the 70% I didn’t think really were bitter at all.  

M: Not at all. 

S: But the 88% definitely has a little bitter note on the back end. 

M: I would definitely eat some again though. 

S: Well yeah, we’re not going to let this go to waste. We’re going to eat all of this but…. Yeah you can really- this is the first time I’ve ever done a taste test like this… 

M: Yeah me too. 

S: …sitting all at once and trying different chocolates. 

M: We should do this regularly.  

S: This might be a weekly thing. 

M: I mean, you should have seen- I went to Central Market and there’s just so much chocolate. 

S: It’s hard to choose- there are so many.

M: It was and I made sure to just get the solid chocolates, I didn’t get any of the ‘with almonds and sea salt’…. 

S: Right, right. 

M: …all the other delicious kinds. 

S: None of these have any additives. They're just straight up chocolate. 

M: Delicious. 

S: Thanks for joining us today. We hope you learned a little something about chocolate.  

M: We’re so grateful to all of you listeners! We love hearing from you! Please make sure to rate and review the podcast and tell your friends about it. 

Both: Class dismissed.