During last months extreme hot temperatures our chocolate fridge decided it needed a break! And so it did. Break, that is!

We lost several trays worth of chocolate as the truffles just gradually collapsed into each other in a sticky blob kind of way. When the humidity and temperatures dropped the chocolates returned back to a solid mass but some of them also had a very unattractive whiteness on the surface. This is commonly referred to as ‘bloom’.

So, why does chocolate bloom?

This can happen due to sudden changes in temperature and/or humidity levels, however not all chocolates are susceptible to this problem. They are still edible and obviously still delicious, but they just don’t look that good any more.

And, how can you prevent chocolate blooming? Well, in my case, the obvious answer would be a fully functioning chocolate cabinet!

But for the customer, the best place for storing chocolate is most definitely NOT in the fridge, as so many people do. As well as being too cold and too damp, cold chocolate is somewhat tasteless compared to room temperature chocolate. It can also absorb strong odours from other food in the fridge such as onions or garlic. There are some weird and wonderful chocolate combinations out there but Garlic Chocolate? Yuk!

Ideal storage for chocolate is in a dark cool dry environment, so a cupboard out of direct sunlight in the coolest part of your house would be ideal.

A lot of my customers tell me that they like cold hard chocolate straight from the fridge as it takes longer to melt in the mouth! If you absolutely have to, then ensure that you first put your chocolate into an airtight container to protect it from strong odours and humidity.