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

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