CSU food scientist answers why chocolate tastes so good and other sweet mysteries

Contact for reporters:

Stacy Nick
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CSU Senior Food Scientist Caitlin Clark is available for interviews. Additionally, Clark was recently interviewed on CSU’s The Audit podcast. Audio and a full transcript of the conversation are available for media use along with high-res images.

Chocolate is the rare food that has served as a muse for writers, filmmakers, poets and painters. It’s also the inspiration for Colorado State University researcher Caitlin Clark.

“I mean, how do you study deliciousness, right?” joked Clark during a recent interview on CSU’s The Audit podcast, when she spoke about the science behind chocolate, why “healthier” chocolate isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and how you can become a volunteer taste tester at CSU’s new chocolate lab.

Clark, a senior food scientist at CSU’s Food Innovation Center at the Spur campus in Denver, has made a career of studying the chemical makeup and processes that make chocolate exactly that – delicious – as well as a little addictive. And one of the reasons might surprise you.

Bitter sweet

“It’s one of the most complex foods that we know of and that largely comes from fermentation,” she said. 

Yes, the same process that makes more bitter-tasting foods, such as yogurt, kimchi and vinegar, is also a central part of why chocolate tastes so sweet. 

Thanks to the fermentation process of the cacao “beans” – which are actually seeds – there are hundreds of flavor compounds, more than are in coffee, wine or many other foods that have a high complexity or are considered very flavorful, Clark said. In chocolate, there’s also a lot to stimulate our senses, literally.

All the buzz

Similar to coffee, chocolate contains compounds called methylxanthines, which include caffeine. However, there is an additional one in chocolate – called theobromine – that is slightly different.

“It has a gentler lift,” Clark said. “There’s some evidence that it’s part of the ‘addictive’ feature of chocolate.”

Which is why chocolate is one of those things that is so difficult to stop eating. And why the industry is often trying to find ways to make chocolate healthier.

There have been a lot of studies on the polyphenols in chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, Clark said. But the health benefits are scarce at best.

“I always want to tell people to just eat some blueberries,” she said. “If that’s what you’re trying to get out of this, eat a handful of blueberries, and then go eat any chocolate you want to. That’s not why you should be eating chocolate.”