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Inside the lab taste-testing the world's chocolate

6/15/202610 min

Could standardizing chocolate help small-scale farmers? Chocolate scientist Julien Simonis thinks it could help persuade consumers to pay for higher quality chocolate, in turn helping out these growers. Every cacao bean is different, and for a long time, there wasn't a standard way of comparing the quality of chocolate. But in 2009, a sustainable agriculture nonprofit started a program called Cacao of Excellence. The goal was to develop a standard way of evaluating cacao just like those sommelier’s do with wine. So today, we’re going behind the scenes of a chocolate laboratory to see just how cacao is evaluated. 

This story was originally reported for NPR by science correspondent Ari Daniel. Read the full story here.

If you liked this episode, check out our episodes on how climate change is hurting chocolate production and how some people are making chocolate alternatives. 

Interested in more chocolate science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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Clips

Farmers Find Dignity In Chocolate
It’s All In The Bean
Standards Could Lift Cacao Farmers
Breathing Technique For Chocolate Tasting
Guillotine Slice Releases Aroma

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 10:00

    This message comes from U.S. Bank. Simplify how you do business with Business Essentials, a powerful combination of no monthly maintenance fee checking and card payment processing. Deposit products are offered by US Bank National Association, member FDIC.

  2. Regina Barber· Host0:15

    [short wave jingle] You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Hey, Short Wavers. It's Regina Barber, and today we're talking chocolate? Do I have that right?

  3. Ari Daniel· Guest0:26

    You sure do, Regina.

  4. Regina Barber· Host0:28

    Awesome. Okay. This is science reporter Ari Daniel. Hey, Ari.

  5. Ari Daniel· Guest0:31

    Hi, Regina.

  6. Regina Barber· Host0:32

    I, I love chocolate, dark chocolate specifically.

  7. Ari Daniel· Guest0:35

    Me too, but milk.

  8. Regina Barber· Host0:36

    Oh, I, I, I do not like milk chocolate, but I, I respect you, Ari. Um- [laughs] And, and I know from our reporting at Short Wave and prices at the grocery store that there's a shortage of chocolate, like, due to many things, the climate crisis being one of them, because of where it's grown. I would love any good news about my beloved chocolate.

  9. Ari Daniel· Guest0:57

    Well, you've come to the right place.

  10. Regina Barber· Host0:58

    Thank goodness.

  11. Ari Daniel· Guest0:59

    And to find that good news, we are going to start about 100 miles north of Rome in this hilly village. It's called Perugia, and we're headed to the Chocolate Experience Museum.

  12. Regina Barber· Host1:12

    Yes. I need to go there so bad.

  13. Ari Daniel· Guest1:15

    [laughs] You should. [laughs] It's an incredible place, and tucked inside this museum is a lab that is dedicated to processing cacao.

  14. Regina Barber· Host1:23

    [cacao beans rattling] Cacao bean, what chocolate's made from.

  15. Ari Daniel· Guest1:29

    Exactly.

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