Food Theory: Chocolate is a LIE!

hey santa i made you this hot chocolate why thank you little boy now you're sure this is hot chocolate right because hot cocoa isn't technically the same thing i uh um santa takes his chocolate terminology very very seriously so i need to know was this made from cocoa powder or did you actually melt down a chocolate bar uh i don't know ah coal is it what a coincidence because this year you're getting cold hard facts about chocolatiering enjoy your pamphlet merry christmas [Music] happy holidays internet welcome to food theory the show that was skeptical that santa's belly actually shakes like a bowl full of jelly so we ran the numbers stop the lies santa but bellies are definitely on my mind at the moment my belly in particular see the holidays are here and that means that i'm inundated with candy wherever i turn candy canes peppermint bark reindeer corn you guys know reindeer corn right keep running into people who've never heard of this thing i swear it's a thing and it tastes well it has a taste and last but certainly not least the holidays are filled with opportunities to consume chocolate or as my dad pet alter ego likes to call them chocolatunities i mean just check out this map of every state's favorite christmas candy it is chocolate from sea to shining sea reeses m ms chocolate santas hershey's kisses well there are some that are concerning here too i mean come on arkansas starburst and pez pez louisiana really all right now that i think about it the dispensers could actually make a solid festive choice so i apologize to you but no apologies to starburst arkansas and it's hardly as though holiday chocolate consumption is an american thing either from chocolate letter or chocolate letter the dutch tradition of giving children their initials in the form of chocolate letters of the alphabet to advent calendars the worldwide christian tradition of counting the days till christmas with stale borderline edible candies i mean seriously how long have those things been sitting in there to hanukkah gelt the tradition of giving foil wrapped chocolate coins it is safe to say that the holiday season and chocolate go together like corn and reindeer just look at that map people eight states have reindeer corn as their top pick eight reindeer corn is a thing i am not making this up anyway with so much chocolate flowing through the holidays tis the season for food theory to tell you it's all lies that's right much of the so-called chocolate that you're consuming is presenting itself in a fraudulent very naughty-list kind way sure that candy you're about to eat may look feel and taste like chocolate but that doesn't mean that it is chocolate then what the heck is it you ask well never fear my friends today's episode will explain it all and we're going to show you how to spot fake chocolate or mock lit as i like to call it before it gets anywhere close to your festive mouths now before we dive into what chocolate isn't we first have to establish what it is chocolate is derived from the fruit of the cacao tree which grows in tropical regions near the equator now if you were to bite into one of these puppies fresh off the tree the experience would not be chocolaty heck wouldn't even be pleasant there are a number of steps that have to be taken in order to turn cacao into chocolate including fermentation and roasting now inside the cacao fruit are white cacao beans technically they're the seeds of the fruit but we call them beans and inside these so-called beans are what are known as nibs roasted nibs are ground and liquefied into chocolate mass aka chocolate liquor which despite the name is a hundred percent alcohol-free chocolate liquor can then be divided into two separate products cocoa butter which is chiefly responsible for giving chocolate its texture and cocoa solids which get ground into cocoa powder and give chocolate its distinctive taste and brown color therefore you should expect to find terms like chocolate liquor cocoa butter and cocoa powder included on the labels of legitimate chocolate products because well that is what chocolate is however the mere presence of these ingredients doesn't necessarily make a product chocolate to earn that label a product must contain enough of those ingredients that's why the cacao percentage is often displayed on chocolate bars this number indicates how much your chocolate bar by weight is cocoa butter or cocoa solid basically the higher the cacao percentage the more chocolate is in your chocolate the percentage can go all the way up to 100 as is the case with many baking chocolates now i should quickly mention that this number doesn't necessarily tell you the quality of the chocolate bar not all ingredients are created equally and the chocolate making process can really impact the final product but the number is the most standardized way of looking at all this okay but how high does the cacao percentage need to be in order to be considered chocolate well that all depends on your jurisdiction here in the us the food and drug administration sets the rules as an example in order to earn the label of milk chocolate here in the u.s a product has to contain at least 10 percent chocolate mass at least 3.39 milk fat and at least 12 milk solids other countries naturally have their own guidelines and frankly a lot of them set the bar higher than the us does for reference in britain the chocolate mass requirement is 20 double what the fda requires way to set that bar low america usa usa low bar low bar in order to be called white chocolate the fda requires the product to have at least 20 percent cocoa butter at least 14 total milk solids and at least 3.5 milk fat and it cannot consist of more than 55 nutritive carbohydrate sweetener you'll notice that white chocolate actually has no cocoa powder requirement the absence of the brown cocoa powder is actually what gives white chocolate its white coloring now as many chocolate purists will tell you when people talk about chocolate they're not actually talking about milk chocolate or white chocolate see milk and white chocolates by definition contain lots of milk and sugar and other non-cocoa ingredients and therefore tend to have lower cacao percentages and less street cred i mean we just got done talking about how at best they have like 10 to 20 cocoa in there when you're talking about 20 of the entire recipe is it still really chocolate chocolate purists say no and the fda sees it the same way if a product wishes to label itself as chocolate without using the word milk or white preceding it it's gonna have to adhere to even stricter guidelines in order to do so dark chocolate is an example of a product that has to play by these rules now the fda's guidelines for labeling a product straight up chocolate are very long and very boring but essentially it means no to artificial flavors and yes to natural flavors derived from cocoa sources but as you can probably imagine there are lots of commercially successful chocolate-like products out there that fall short of the fda's stringent chocolate guidelines and cost is the biggest reason why genuine cocoa beans can be pretty darn expensive and companies tend not to like expensive things so a lot of companies have tweaked their recipes in order to save them money in doing so they lose the right to label themselves as chocolate but in order to hide that inconvenient truth from consumers companies get creative if not downright deceptive with their wording for instance in 2008 hershey's whatchamacallit altered its recipe to use vegetable oil instead of the more expensive cocoa butter and thereafter could no longer legally claim the candy contained milk chocolate the rapper now states that it is quote made with chocolate which is a clever way of phrasing it in a way that's technically not untrue whatchamacallit does indeed have some cocoa in it but the percentage is so low that it can't be a milk chocolate bar let alone a chocolate chocolate bar in fact that same year hershey's also altered the recipes of other candies including mr goodbar take 5 and the now extinct hershey's kissables which originally had milk chocolate in the corner of its packaging but discreetly changed the phrasing into chocolate candy and by the way just to be clear hershey's didn't change the recipes to all of their candies their top sellers like hershey's milk chocolate bar reese's candy kisses and kitkat didn't get altered at all but the point is consumers have to be alert or else they might get whatchamacallited with deceptive marketing words and phrases like chocolatey or chocolate flavored or made with chocolate are usually a good indication that the product doesn't contain enough genuine chocolate to fit the fda guidelines big candy certainly doesn't make it easy for you to tell the real chocolate products from the fakes which is why today we're gonna play a quick game to help drill the concept home ladies and gentlemen i present to you chocolate or moclet i'm gonna show you a product and you guess if it's chocolate based on the fda regulations first up this drink starbucks is double chocolaty chip creme frappuccino chocolate or mock lit the answer mocklet starbucks's double chocolaty chip creme frappuccino isn't just named that because it sounds cute one look at the ingredients in this bad boy will tell you that there is no way starbucks could legally call this a chocolate product next up snow caps chocolate or mocklet the answer chocolate that's right although the word non-perel might seem a little suspect that's just the name of the little white sprinkles on these actual chocolatey pieces chocolate pieces not chocolatey ah even i'm falling into it round three the famous butterfinger bar chocolate or mocklet the answer here moklet now i gotta hand it to them they really did what they could by crafting the phrase crispity crunchity peanut buttery bar covered in a rich chocolatey coating made with cocoa yeah they used the word chocolatey but they surrounded it with other cute words ending with why so they hid it really well plus they even mentioned the cocoa but unfortunately they don't use enough cocoa to use the word chocolate butterfingers contain vegetable oil and less than two percent of cocoa sorry to lay that figure on your butterfinger now of course plenty of popular products are still totally authentic according to the fda guidelines do they taste better than their non-chocolate competitors ultimately it's up for the individual consumer to decide but for all of this chocolate versus non-chocolate talk there is an upside here there is one advantage to using less cacao that we haven't touched on yet but one that we should probably consider given that it's the holidays and we should be thinking about those in need for years the chocolate industry has notoriously employed child labor about two-thirds of the world's cocoa supply comes from west africa where according to the 2015 u.s labor department report more than 2 million children were engaged in dangerous labor in cocoa growing regions as a result the odds are high that a chocolate bar bought in the united states is the product of child labor while most of the world's biggest chocolate companies like hershey's mars nestle and more have signed an agreement to reduce their reliance on child labor it is still a problem and it's a good reason that cutting back on genuine chocolate might not be the worst thing in the world with a little research it's easy to find which companies have signed the agreement and made positive strides and which haven't a few notable brands that go the extra mile ethically are tony's chocoloney seed and bean and ocelot chocolate all of which pledge to know where their chocolate is coming from and pay above fair trade prices for cacao beans so the next time you end up trading some mock lit coins after spinning the dreidel or you find yourself reaching for a bowl of holiday treats around the christmas tree be ready to drop either of those fun facts hey what you're eating is either not chocolate or it could very well be the product of child labor you're gonna be the hit of every holiday party but hey that's just a theory a food theory bon appetit here's another theory you should subscribe right now food theories come in strong each and every week with content to help and entertain you the consumer and if this episode satisfied your sweet tooth be sure to check out our episode on cakes turns out it's not just big chocolate that's been lying to you big cake has been tricking you about eggs in the cake mixes for years go check that one out link is on screen right now and i will see you all next week

Channel: The Food Theorists

Views: 3,323,614

Rating: 4.9357791 out of 5

Keywords: chocolate, chocolate is a lie, chocolate food, chocolate recipe, what is chocolate, white chocolate, candy, sugar, sweets, chocolate cake, hershey, hershey chocolate, candy bars, food science, food lie, food myths, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate recipes, food chocolate, food, recipe, recipes, rosanna pansino, binging with babish, good eats, food theory, food theorists, matpat, game theory, film theory, food theory chocolate, chocolate cake recipe

Id: c3aLDCMBGok

Length: 12min 3sec (723 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/DanieMinchue]

I've got an important question! My icecream's flavor is Death By Chocolate, so is it chocolate?