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When we describe chocolate, we often use a word: "silky".

Bite off a chocolate chip, put it in the mouth, it will slowly melt between the lips and teeth, from a solid to a silky liquid. This may be the reason why it is difficult for many people to refuse chocolate. Researchers from the University of Leeds in the UK are trying to answer this question: why is chocolate so silky?

It's so slippery. | everyone may have the experience of eating chocolate in giphy, but which process gives us such a special feeling? In order to understand this problem, scientists first created an "artificial tongue"-3D bionic tongue-like surface.

Our tongue is a flexible soft tissue covered with moist mucus, with many protuberances called tongue nipples on the upper surface, forming a white tongue coating. It is this special structure that gives us the ability to enjoy good food, in the mouth, tongue, saliva and food rub, lubricate each other, we can feel the stickiness of syrup, the slightly astringent wine, the silky chocolate and other rich taste.

Delicious | Giphy therefore, today's food scientists are paying more and more attention to "oral tribology". If they can understand the interaction between tongue, saliva and different foods, they may be able to develop something more "delicious".

Researchers at the University of Leeds developed an "artificial tongue" as early as 2020, using 3D printing technology to create small tongue nipples on a soft silicone surface. a bionic tongue that is similar to a human tongue in texture, surface shape and even wettability.

Although it doesn't look like a real tongue, it can simulate real tongue friction. | Ref. 2 the researchers say that the bionic tongue touches food in a way that is very similar to that of a human tongue, so it can be used to carry out the "oral friction" experiment mentioned above. This test method was used in this chocolate experiment, and a microscope was used to observe the state of chocolate from licking, melting and mixing with saliva.

Warm tip: before you see the following, you can prepare a piece of chocolate, put it in your mouth, and feel the researchers' conclusions at the same time.

Are you ready to eat the chocolate and come into contact with the moist tongue as soon as you enter the mouth? the chocolate shell is fat wrapped in cocoa particles, and as the chocolate melts at the oral temperature (37 °C), it will first form a fat film that covers the mouth, which makes the whole entrance feel smooth. Then the constant secretion of saliva replaces the previously formed fat layer, increasing the friction between the food and the mouth.

Source: reference 1 while the chocolate is chewed, a large number of cocoa particles are released, and the friction further increases, providing you with a stronger taste and, over time, a sense of smell behind your nose, that is, the sense of smell caused by entering the back of the nasal cavity from the mouth.

Then, the mixture of chocolate particles and melted chocolate rubbed in the mouth to form fat oil droplets containing particles, and the silky chocolate liquid was mixed with saliva and finally swallowed.

It can be seen that in fact, in this process, the feeling of "silky" mainly comes from the process of contact between the fat layer on the chocolate shell and the tongue. In the chewing stage, in fact, the taste has nothing to do with fat, the focus is on tasting cocoa.

Source: after knowing this in reference 1, the researchers believe that since the silky taste comes from the fat shell, a slight change in the position of the fat in the chocolate bar can reduce the fat content of the chocolate while still keeping it silky.

After all, whether it is chocolate that "contains 5% fat or 50% fat", it will eventually form droplets and make it feel the same way.

So in the experiment, the researchers envisioned a new type of chocolate with most of the fat layer on the shell and rich cocoa particles on the inside, which still feels silky when entering the mouth.

Similarly silky but healthier chocolate ~ | Ref. 1 in fact, earlier, there were scientists trying to make chocolate more silky at the level of making chocolate. In general, the process of turning rough, clumpy chocolate into a silky chocolate requires constant fine heating, cooling and melting, a technique called thermoregulation that eventually allows the chocolate to form a stable fat structure. In 2019, scientists at the University of Edinburgh and New York University tested changes in the physical properties of chocolate at the micro level during temperature regulation.

The online temperature adjustment tutorial shows the difference between chocolate before and after temperature adjustment. | YouTube later, scientists at Quiffe University found that adding a small amount of phospholipids to chocolate and then cooling it quickly can also get a chocolate with perfect microstructure and surface gloss, simplifying the temperature adjustment process.

Now, scientists have discovered the secret of chocolate's slippery taste. This magical and delicious food attracts food scientists all over the world because of its unique characteristics. I hope they will make more efforts so that we can eat healthy, low-fat, but silky, delicious (and cheap) chocolate as soon as possible.

If you want to read other articles about chocolate 🍫:

It is not pigment, but physics that makes chocolate rainbow.

Reference:

[1] Soltanahmadi, Siavash, Michael Bryant, and Anwesha Sarkar. "Insights into the Multiscale Lubrication Mechanism of Edible Phase Change Materials." ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 15.3 (2023): 3699-3712.

[2] Andablo-Reyes, Efren, et al. 3D biomimetic tongue-emulating surfaces for tribological applications. "ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 12.44 (2020): 49371-49385.

[3] Afoakwa, Emmanuel Ohene, Alistair Paterson, and Mark Fowler. "Factors influencing rheological and textural qualities in chocolate-a review." Trends in Food Science & Technology 18.6 (2007): 290298.

[4] Chen, Jay, et al. "Tempering of cocoa butter and chocolate using minor lipidic components." Nature Communications 12.1 (2021): 5018.

This article is from the official Wechat account: bring Science Home (ID:steamforkids), author: everything.

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