A Swiss chocolatier has invented chocolate that doesn’t melt – and it could be a game changer for the industry.
The news has delighted sweet-toothed fans living in hot countries as they can now enjoy their favourite treats without them going gooey.
Barry Callebaut, a company specialised in the quest for chocolate miracles, claims it has come up with the ultimate ‘unmeltable’ chocolate that can ‘survive’ in up to 38C.
As a comparison, that’s a whole four degrees higher than normal bars of chocolate can withstand before they turn into chocolate sauce.
Chocolate manufacturers have spent years trying to come up with the perfect recipe for a chocolate bar that lasts in hot climates but doesn’t compromise on taste.
Barry Callebaut chief executive Antoine de Saint-Affrique told the Financial Times that their new invention could “fundamentally change the game”.
Callebaut Continental
While in the UK we rarely have to worry about the temperature going high enough to melt a bar of chocolate, in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, chocolate will quickly turn to mush.
Often in those countries biscuits are favoured over chocolate, which is too expensive and difficult to store.
For a chocolate company, that’s billions in potential profits being lost because of hot weather.
The invention marks a huge business opportunity for chocolate companies in hot climates.
Meanwhile Nestle is close behind Callebaut and says it has developed a chocolate that maintains its shape at 40 degrees and expects its products to hit the shelves within three years.
Callebaut first started work on an unmeltable chocolate almost a decade aho and came up with a product called ‘Volcano’ which they claimed could withstand temperature of 55C.
But the project was abandoned because the taste wasn’t ‘chocolatey’ enough.