Karl Ritter spent twenty-one years at Mars, Inc., the last eight years managing the company's Analytical Laboratory. This man knows his chocolate. On December 11, he presented a lecture in Spada Commons on the science of how chocolate is created and processed at an event hosted by the Delbarton Research in Science Club.

Mars was founded by Franklin Clarence Mars, whose mother taught him to hand dip and sell chocolate candy. He started the Mars Candy Factory in 191 at age 28. Today the company, headquartered in McLean, VA, sells candy, pet food and other food products and remains the fourth largest family-owned business in the United States. In 2022 it did $45 billion in annual sales. 

Chocolate is made from roasted and ground cocoa beans, the fried and fermented seeds of the cacao tree which is native to South America. Similar to coffee beans, cocoa beans vary in flavor depending on the region of origin, so different country’s beans have different flavors, and “the beans are at the heart of it,” says Ritter. Pods from the cacao tree (as shown below) look far different from the finished product of tasty chocolate candies that we know and love...

After the beans are dried, typically by spreading them on a flat surface to bake in the sun, the shells are removed, and the cocoa nibs are ground to make chocolate liquor. “The liquor smells fantastic but it’s incredibly bitter,” said Ritter as he apssed around bottled samples. In its natural state, chocolate contains 400 volatile compounds, each with a distinct characteristic which is detected the old-fashioned way, through the human sense of smell. “You can’t replace the human nose,” Ritter says, and (thus far) AI has not been able to simulate the nuances of flavor analysis that the human nose can perform. 

Next comes mixing and conching. A conche is a metal bead-filled container that acts as a grinder, and the blended chocolate mass is liquified by frictional heat. Before conching, chocolate is gritty; Conching transforms chocolate into a smooth liquid. High quality chocolate is conched for 72 hours while lesser grades are conched for four to six hours. Ritter distributed samples of roasted cocao beans (see below) and fermented chocolate. Anyone mistaking unsweeneted roasted cocao beans for roasted almonds is in for a rude awakening. 

Chocolate is then tempered by cooling while agitating it until a small amount of cocoa butter crystalizes to create the desired glossy sheen. Much of the chocolate we enjoy is sweet chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and added vegetable oils and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that contains milk powder. Interestingly, white chocolate has no cocoa solids, only cocoa butter, sugar, and milk.

Candy production for companies like Mars includes ‘enrobing‘ other ingredients like caramel and nuts with molten chocolate to create filled candies and composite chocolate bars. The liquid chocolate is also poured into molds and cooled to create chocolate bars and solid chocolates.

Research in Science club members then sampled three different chocolate products: Hershey Kisses, Dove Milk Chocolate and Dove Dark Chocolate. Kisses were variously described as “creamy with a slight sour aftertaste”, Dove Milk Chocolate was “milky, creamy, caramel-y” and Dove Dark Chocolate had a distinctly roasted flavor. Dove Milk Chocolate seemed to be the favorite for our impromptu Delbarton focus group.

“During my 30+ years working in analytical, flavor and color science, I honed my skills in trouble-shooting and providing solutions for challenging problems. I see myself as a detective, a sort of Sherlock Holmes if you will, for finding the correct scientific approach to solve issue,” writes Ritter in his LinkedIn profile. Today, he is a Food Science and Analytical Laboratory consultant who bridges the gap between science and solutions.

We thank him for sharing his knowledge (and chocolates!) with our Research in Science Club members.