Thanks for the info and tips!

Gladys

"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Sun, 14 Nov 2004 06:56:50 GMT in <SkDld.214355$Pl.180378@pd7tw1no>,
> (Gladys Cheng) wrote :
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>I was wondering if anyone knew what the recommended time to keep
>>chocolate for is? I bought some chocolate in Europe a couple of months
>>ago, and have them stored in the basement where it is cool, but was
>>curious what the maxium time and ideal temperature to keep chocolate?
>>
>
> Kept under reasonable conditions, dark chocolate lasts for a minimum of 2
> years, milk chocolate for a minimum of a year (from the date of
> manufacture.) These are minima - much chocolate will survive just fine
> well
> past this point and if kept under optimum conditions, can last 5 years,
> possibly more. It's important to note the expiration date on the package,
> because this will give you some idea of when it was manufactured, and thus
> how much leeway you have. Although except under rare conditions chocolate
> slightly past its expiration date is fine and will last at least several
> months, if it's expired for many months, it may not be as good as it was
> originally.
>
> Chocolate doesn't really become unsafe to eat (not for a very long time
> indeed), but over the course of several years, the flavour dissipates and
> the resultant chocolate will taste cardboardy. In addition, the cocoa
> butter will eventually go rancid (although, again, this will take a long
> time) and make the whole bar taste harsh. In milk chocolate the milk
> products rancidify a lot faster and thus the shorter shelf life.
>
> The real danger with chocolate is poor storage. If kept badly, several
> things can happen. Most frequently overlooked is odour absorption.
> Chocolate is amazingly efficient at soaking up ambient odours, even if the
> smell in the storage area is only slight. A musty smell will cause the
> entire bar rapidly to take on this aroma, as will mossy, tobacco, pet,
> plastic, rubber, and wood odours, together with the usual food suspects:
> onions, cheeses, garlic, spices. In your case I'd check your basement.
> Does
> it smell of anything? Be critical and don't overlook even slight odours
> because they could well be magnified in the bar.
>
> The next problem is moisture. High relative humidity is especially bad
> because it will leach sugar to the surface, causing sugar bloom,
> characterised by a light, grey coating (as opposed to a whiter, more
> powdery coating, more on that in a minute). Sugar bloom ruins both the
> taste and texture of chocolate and you generally will end up throwing it
> away. More insidiously, low relative humidity is also a problem because it
> accelerates flavour loss and dries out the bar at the same time. The
> result
> is a bar that seems to have had the life sucked out of it - edible, but
> bland. Humidity cycling, to either pole, accelerates the processes and
> quickly breaks down chocolate. So it should definitely not be in somewhere
> where the humidity isn't controlled and there's potential for it to shift
> significantly. There again, in your basement situation, is it a climate-
> controlled basement? If not, moisture cycling problems may bedevil the
> chocolate.
>
> Next is the one that occurs to most people: temperature. Obviously, at too
> high a temperature the chocolate will melt, an obvious problem. But it
> doesn't have to get nearly that hot in order for it to have cocoa butter
> bloom. A bar with cocoa butter bloom is easy to recognise because it will
> have a whitish film on top like a layer of frost. Some places, in what I
> think is a disingenuous attempt to save money by minimising returns, claim
> that chocolate with cocoa butter bloom is unaffected, but this is NOT
> true.
> Cocoa butter bloom will make the chocolate taste, once again, harsh, and
> kills subtle fruity flavour characteristics, leaving only the earthier or
> woodier components. In addition it makes the bar very brittle and dry in
> texture, chalky on the tongue. Sometimes because of indifferent storage at
> the retail source, you'll get a bar straight from the store with cocoa
> butter bloom - if this happens, return it immediately and demand either a
> replacement with a different lot number, or a refund. The second is often
> wiser because if this bar was affected, most likely the entire store's
> supply will be too. Cocoa butter bloom can happen any time the temperature
> cycles above 80F. Low temperatures are also not ideal for chocolate.
> Usually the problems here are related to humidity. Routinely cold
> conditions are usually dry, bad for chocolate as I mentioned above. And if
> the temperature cycles, the chocolate will sweat, condensing on the
> surface
> and causing severe sugar bloom. It's OK to store in low temperatures with
> decent humidity provided the ramp-up to room temperature is slow, but
> beware any sudden shifts.
>
> What are ideal conditions, then? Slightly below normal room temperature
> (about 60F), moderate humidity (about 50%RH is good), and absolutely odour
> free (in a metal box far away from other odour sources is the best). Of
> course, I prefer the Sandra Boynton answer "The most conscientious
> individuals will see to it that storage is not a problem..."(cartoon of
> hippo sitting beside fully consumed box of chocolates)
>
> --
> Alex Rast
>
> (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)