Scientists at the University of Reading in the UK have made chocolate from cocoa beans grown in Berkshire. This is the second all-British chocolate bar in the country's history. The first was made in 1932 by the confectioner Rowntree's, and was eaten by the then six-year-old future Queen Elizabeth II. This was reported by infohub.kz.
The new chocolate was created to celebrate the university's 100th anniversary. It was made using cocoa from plants in the institute's collection. The project was led by Maha Khan, a master's student at the university. She harvested, fermented, and processed the beans at the university's food department.
Khan said the chocolate highlights the precarious nature of our food supplies. Cocoa plants are very sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and climate change is already causing problems in countries that produce most of the world's cocoa. Therefore, preserving different varieties is vital to help farmers grow hardier plants that can cope with a changing climate.
Khan said the chocolate is delicious and has a very rich flavour. She also tasted the raw cacao before it was processed: "The beans are coated in a white flesh that tastes like lychee, which is not something many people in this country get to try." She noted that the chocolate is made from cocoa from over 300 varieties, and the complexity of the flavour profiles is incredible.
The university hopes this project will highlight the importance of its work in preserving different varieties of cocoa, which could be resistant to changes in weather, pests, and diseases. The University of Reading's international cocoa quarantine centre has more than 300 types of cocoa plant and handles 97% of the world's international movement of cocoa plants.
In recent years, high temperatures in cocoa-growing regions have stunted plant growth and led to rising chocolate prices. Extreme rainfall caused by climate change has also drowned crops in Africa. Currently, only six bars have been made, but Khan hopes to increase production depending on the availability of the beans. She plans to give one to the Princess of Wales, as the first British chocolate was eaten by a future queen in 1932, and it would be fitting for the next bar to be a gift to another future queen, who was also born in Reading.