Chocolate, Tropical

[Donald]

Traditionally Hershey made a tropical chocolate bar that was resistant to melting. Are these still made? I have not seen any for some time.

Further, I saw a brief blurb on TV about a tropical chocolate that was even more resistant to melting. They had a demonstration of the tropical bar next to a regular chocolate bar, in the sun. The tropical one held up fine, but the regular one melted. I did not see the whole thing, and it was more than a couple of years ago. The secret was that they microencapsulated the cocoa butter (or whatever part?) and thus it did not melt, yet if you chewed on it, delicious like normal chocolate because all the same ingredients were there. I have tried a web search a couple of times to no avail. Does anyone have any more information on this?

 

[Paul Davidson]

I can't really answer your question about the availability of "tropical" chocolate. I will say that the only times I have eaten melt resistant chocolate it was awful. About 20 years ago my Father bought me a case of C rations (not MREs, but the kind that came in OD cans with a new P-38 can opener for every couple of boxes). The chocolate that came with those was more like candle wax with cocoa added. Hardly what I call chocolate. A few years later a friend of mine had some chocolate bars that he bought in a back country store for a hiking trip. They were only marginally better. I would be interested in that microencapsulated stuff if it does taste more like the real deal. I vaguely remember reading about it a few years ago, yet I've never seen it. I think I'll just stick to M&M's until someone can make "tropical" chocolate that still tastes like chocolate.

If you just want the calorie boost, some of the energy gels and bars are not bad (but they are also not Lindt or Hershey).

As a chocolate lover, I think this is a very important thread.

Paul

 

[e_utopia]

The micro-encapsulated stuff is made by a Swiss company, I believe. However, while it has the same ingredients as regular chocolate, it does not tast the same. It is very similar, but there is a noticeable difference.

--JB

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e_utopia@hotmail.com

 

[Ralf]

My guess is the factor which affects the melting point of chocolate is the cocoa butter it contains. The not melting type seems to contain some other type of fat.

If you want, you can make the chocolate yourself. Just take some sugar and add cocoa powder and vanilla. You can then mix it with freshly smashed peanuts to get calorie bomb you need. It's not real chocolate, but hey, it's melting proof.

 

[Jimbo]

The Cadbury Chocolate Company used to make a tropical chocolate for sale in India and Africa. Try their website and ask if it's available.

 

[Griffon]

Originally posted by Ralf:
My guess is the factor which affects the melting point of chocolate is the cocoa butter it contains. The not melting type seems to contain some other type of fat.

I think I recall hearing that the bars we got in the air force were made with [partly?] coconut fat to raise the melting temperature.



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