If you love chocolates, you know how difficult it is to convince yourself about saving few of the chocolates for the next day. You just cannot unless you have a will power. Chocolate is addictive and you feel like eating them all up at once. But when your family member returns from a trip abroad, with literally a carton full of chocolates, you do realize that finishing off all at once isn’t possible and that they need to be preserved. And for this purpose, you need to know the right way to preserve the chocolates else you will not be able to eat them later on. The chocolate can be destroyed by external factors such as direct association with sunlight. So, when someone sends you lots of chocolates by post, preserve them this way –
The chocolate should be stored in between 50 and 55°F (15-18°C) – Heat is the chocolates greatest enemy. Slowly and gradually it will remove all its aroma and then attack the flavour too. When in summers the temperature goes up too high, the chocolate will melt, wrecking the texture and beautiful mould. There will also be a high possibility of a bloom developing on the surface of the bar. It will look unpleasant to look at but won’t cause any hindrance as you eat the bar. Bloomed chocolate has a very poor texture, and blooming is a proof of poor storage. So, we assume you are thinking what can be done with one such bar, well – simply taste it. The taste will be fine so you will want to eat it all. But just in case you think it is not edible to be eaten, use it while baking cake.
Cold temperature – When you store your chocolates under extreme cold a temperature, what happens is that crystalline structure impacts the chocolate’s texture, causing bloom. The people who make chocolate take great care to make a bar in which the cocoa solid plus cocoa butter are mixed intimately. The hard work put in behind this can be ruined by temperatures.
Store the chocolates in a cool and dry place – This instruction is given on the package of the chocolates too. The relative humidity should be below 50%. Moisture, when too much, may condense on chocolate itself, leading to all the sugar coming out on its surface. This may or may not upset the flavourtotally but totally spoils the texture. You can taste it to finalize if you want to eat it just like that or mix in something else.
Keep the chocolates away from direct sunlight – This is a must. The sun rays will not only heat them up, but will destroy its flavour further.
Avoiding strong odours is also a must – Your fridge may be stored with lots of other items. Do not keep the chocolate in the fridge where you keep the garlic or the eggs. Chocolates easily attract odour of the other items. You can keep the chocolate in another box separately.
When you get chocolate gifts delivered, deliver this note too!