At Viva Cacao, we are passionate about chocolate in all its forms. However, there are times when even the best chocolate can look a bit off. Ever noticed a white, powdery substance on your chocolate? That’s called chocolate bloom, and it can happen for a couple of reasons.
Sugar Bloom
Sugar bloom occurs when water comes into contact with chocolate. This often happens if the chocolate is stored in the fridge or a high-humidity environment. The white stuff you see on the surface is condensation. The chocolate absorbs the water, causing the sugar (in the case of Viva Cacao products, this would be coconut sugar!) to dissolve, and when the water evaporates, the sugar re-solidifies into small crystals, creating a layer of dried sugar on the surface.
Fat Bloom
Fat bloom, on the other hand, involves the cocoa butter (the fatty part of the chocolate). For cocoa butter to remain stable, it needs to be in a specific crystal structure, achieved through tempering. Tempering is a process where melted chocolate's temperature is carefully raised and lowered while constantly stirring. This gives chocolate its shiny appearance, smooth texture, and good snap. Fat bloom occurs when the cocoa butter loses this structure due to poor tempering or exposure to warm temperatures, causing the chocolate to look dull and feel soft.
Chocolate Storage Tips
To avoid chocolate bloom, never store your chocolate in the fridge or freezer. Instead, store it in a cool, dark place away from humidity. Treat your chocolate like fine wine, and it will thank you by maintaining its perfect texture and taste.
Is It Safe to Eat Bloomed Chocolate?
Bloomed chocolate is safe to eat, although it might not taste as good. The texture may be off, and the subtle flavors may be lost. However, you can still use bloomed chocolate for baking, making hot chocolate, or adding to granola or pancakes, etc.
Quality Assurance at Viva Cacao
If you ever buy a bar of our chocolate and it looks bloomed, something likely happened during transportation or at the store. Please return it to the store and let them know. This way, the problem can be identified and solved.
We recently had an issue where our distributor stored our products in the fridge, causing the chocolate to bloom. We had to replace all the affected bars, but it was a valuable lesson learned. If you ever receive a bloomed bar from us (assuming it wasn’t stored improperly by you), we will gladly replace it.
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(Photo and some text reposted from @thechocolatejournalist)