From Bean to Bar - The Chemistry of Chocolate Sunday 14 August 2011
Join us for the unusual opportunity to taste, smell and examine the different steps in chocolate making and understand why people eat the treated fruit of the cacao plant.
Good quality dark chocolate is a very complex food, containing more than 400 different molecules. Many o these are derived from the football-sized cocoa pods that are fermented, dried, roasted, pressed, re-mixed, tempered and moulded to make chocolate blocks.
As chemists we're interested in some of these molecules because of the way they affect people - some of the outcomes are pretty obvious (too much fatty chocolate makes people put on weight) but chocolate also contains stimulants (including caffeine) that increase the heart rate and influence our emotions. there are also important antioxidants in chocolate - antioxidants can reduce blood pressure and decrease stroke and cancer risks.
From Bean to Bar is part of Living Science at the Market a 'City Science 2011' event at National Science Week in 2010
From Bean to Bar can travel to you! Email admin@re-science.org.au for more details. Please note there is a minimum daily cost associated with the program.
