The scientific formula behind melt-in-your-mouth chocolate

For chocolate lovers, putting a piece of chocolate in their mouth is a sensory experience that is nothing short of heavenly. Its texture, velvety and enveloping, especially at the melting point, gives the palate a unique flavor and pleasurable sensation.

But have you ever wondered what the secret of this phenomenon is? Why is chocolate one of the few foods to melt in our mouth? Well, we will explain it to you in this gallery!

Before understanding how this particular chemical process is possible, it is important to know what chocolate is made of and what type of processing is followed to obtain it.

Compact chocolate consists mainly of three ingredients: cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar. Cocoa contains, in turn, chemicals called polyphenols, responsible for the bitter taste.

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The various manufacturing processes help to reduce the bitterness of the polyphenols and to obtain an increasingly soft consistency.

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The technique that has been used since the 1800s to obtain compact chocolate was born in Switzerland and is called conching.

During this lengthy manufacturing process, the chocolate is heated and mixed and the ingredients are added in a specific order.

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Some time ago, when this technique was not known, the chocolate obtained was much rougher and grainier. It is thanks to conching that it has reached the smooth and compact consistency we know today. But what happens chemically during conching?

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Conching helps to improve the distribution of fat particles in the chocolate. Cocoa butter, which is rich in fatty acids, is homogenized in the chocolate, forming a solid network of fat and sugar crystals.

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The process that marks the transition from liquid to solid is called jamming: once the critical point of density is reached, the consistency suddenly becomes viscous and the compound stops flowing. Conching only delays this step.

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The combination of sugar crystals and the fat content create a kind of network structure within the chocolate: solid at room temperature, but which can melt easily once in the mouth. Why? Let's find out in the next slide.

It's all a question of chemistry: body temperature, around 37º C (99ºF), allows the network of fats and sugar crystals to break, allowing the chocolate to transform into a liquid form.

Furthermore, cocoa butter has a melting point similar to body temperature. For this reason, once in the mouth, where the temperature reaches 34º C (93ºF), the heat causes the fats in the chocolate to melt.

It is therefore the fats contained in the chocolate that melt once they come into contact with the heat and with the tongue inside the mouth, making solid chocolate smooth and silky at the same time.

During the long manufacturing process, previously described, the particles of cocoa and sugar are considerably reduced.

Once they reach microscopic dimensions, the cocoa particles are distributed evenly, giving the chocolate that delicate and smooth texture that we all know, and above all, love!