Sorry Folks, Climate Change Won't Make Chocolate Taste Better

Two years ago, news headlines blared, Cheese really is crack, citing research that was widely misinterpreted as asserting cheese was addictive. Now, it’s chocolate’s turn.

Last week, several publications celebrated a new study that highlights the impacts of climate change on cocoa, stating global warming might make chocolate taste better. Good news, chocolate-lovers, wrote one outlet, “climate change may have a silver lining’.

Sadly, it’s not true.

Wiebke Niether, the lead researcher of the study (published in the Journal of Agriculture And Food Chemistry) stresses, “We did not … show that climate change may offer opportunities to produce chocolate with a better taste”

Instead, what they found was evidence that climate change impacts the production of fat and minerals in cacao (the pod-shaped fruit whose seeds become cocoa and chocolate) that, in turn, influence both nutritional value and flavor.

Amazon link to purchase Simran Sethi’s Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of the Foods We Love.