How to store chocolate

• There is a direct correlation between freshness and the quality of chocolate.

• The best way to keep chocolate fresh is to eat it once you buy it.  Always pay attention to the “Best if used by” date on the box to determine how long you can keep it.

• Storing chocolate at room temperature is fine, provided the room temperature is between 68 and 72 degrees.

• Boxed chocolates that are bought at a grocery store are designed to be able to stay out at room temperature for long periods of time. This is due to the thickness of the chocolate shell and the preservatives that are added to the chocolate.

• If you buy chocolate from a chocolatier it may last anywhere from 3 days to a week.

• When chocolate has “bloomed” it means that it has gotten hot and then cold and some cocoa butter comes out of the chocolate, creating a grayish film.

• If you encounter “bloomed” chocolate it is probably okay to eat if it is a chocolate bar, but a truffle or bon bon will probably not taste its best.  It is perfectly fine if you melt the chocolate.

• When storing chocolate in the freezer do it in stages:

1. Portion out the chocolate (so that you only take out what you want to eat when you’re ready) and place each portion in a freezer-weight bag.
2. Put the bag(s) in the refrigerator with a paper towel inside each bag. The paper towel will absorb any moisture.
3. Once the chocolate has cooled to the refrigerator temperature, put it in another freezer bag and then put it in the freezer.

• Don’t expose the chocolate to moisture because that will pull the sugar out of the chocolate and change its texture.

• If you are buying chocolate as a gift it is best to buy it as close to the date that you will be giving the chocolate to someone.

• Chocolate at a specialty store will be much fresher than chocolate bought at a grocery or drug store.

LISA: I'm Lisa Birnbach for howdini. If you're lucky enough to get a big box of chocolates, you may not be able to eat all of in one sitting even in the unlikely event that you choose to share them. So how to store them so they'll stay fresh and delicious? To answer that question is chocolate expert and author Clay Gordon whose new book is Discover Chocolate. To refrigerate or not, that is the question.

CLAY: Only in extremities. The best way to store chocolate is actually in your mouth. Right the moment you get it, you want to eat it.

LISA: Melts in your mouth not in your hand. 

CLAY: There is a direct correlation between freshness and quality. If you get a box of chocolate, all you have to do really is leave it out in room temperature providing it's somewhere between sixty eight and seventy two degrees and it wil actually last for quite a while. You do have to look at the box because a manufacturer might have a Best by date on the box and you do want to pay attention to that. 

LISA: And when you say quite a while do you mean a couple of weeks? 

CLAY: Well it depends upon what kind of chocolate that you've bought. If you've gone to the grocery store or you've gone to the drug store and you've bought a box sampler that chocolate is actually made to sit out at room temperature for a very long time. And that's done by making the chocolates have very thick shells and also, unfortunately, by adding preservatives to them. But if you go to your local artisan chocolatier, the chocolate will likely last somewhere between three days and a week before you start noticing that there's a difference in the taste.  

LISA: Clay, what does it mean when they say chocolate has bloomed? 

CLAY: Well it means that the chocolate has gotten hot, then cold, and some cocoa butter comes out of the chocolate and it creates a sort of grayish film. As a matter of fact here's an example of some chocolate that's been bloomed. You can see the grayish bloom and if you actually pick it up you can rub the bloom off. Right and the chocolate looks like it's okay again. You haven't really affected the taste or the texture of the chocolate and it just looks ugly. Unless it's really bad and it's happened a long time ago, the cocoa butter can turn eventually. Even though it's a very stable fat, it can actually turn. So if you taste that even though it's been bloomed, it's unsightly, it doesn't look good, actually the texture is okay and the taste is okay.

LISA: Yeah.

CLAY: But it's not really as nice as opening up a really beautiful bar of chocolate which is nice and bright and shiny and then all this kind of stuff without that kind of bloom on it.  This is actually the kind of stuff you want to serve. Not something that looked like that.

LISA: If you see it on your own chocolate at home would you try it or not?

CLAY: Well it depends upon what kind of chocolate we're talking about. If it's a bar of chocolate then chances are it's okay, and of course what you do if you melt the chocolate then everything goes back to being okay again. 

LISA: Mm-hmm.

CLAY: And if it's a confection like a truffle or bon bon, you've gone someplace special, you can try it but don't expect to be at its best. 

LISA: What about freezing it?  Is that even a more strange idea than refrigerating it? 

CLAY: It's not really a strange idea. If you are in a position where you have to put the chocolate in the refrigerator or put the chocolate in the freezer, you have to do it in stages and go slowly. So the first thing to do would be to portion up the chocolate into individual servings. 

LISA: Uh-huh.

CLAY: Then put it into a freezer weight bag and then put it into the refrigerator with a paper towel inside the bag so the paper towel will absorb any moisture that's in it. So once the chocolate has cooled to the refrigerator temperature

LISA: Right.

CLAY: You can take it out, put it in another freezer bag and then put it in the freezer. And when you take it out you want to do the opposite. Take it out of the freezer. But the reason why you've done it in individual portions is you only take out as much as you're going to eat. Right cause you don't want to expose the chocolate to moisture. Because moisture will pull the sugar out the chocolate and it will change its texture and ruin it completely.

LISA: Um, what about the length of time chocolate's been kept in a store. We don't know. It could be a beautiful chocolate store, candy store, but that chocolate could for some reason have been there a while. 

CLAY: Well, in general, no. If you're at a very high end chocolate store, one of the reasons why it's so expensive is because they actually rotate the stock and if it doesn't sell within a couple of days to a week they'll actually take it out, and you won't actually buy it. 

LISA: Right. 

CLAY: And they actually factor that into the cost of the chocolate. But, if you go to a grocery store or if you go to a drug store and you buy a box of chocolate chances are it's been six to nine months from the time it's been made until the time it hits the shelf in the store. 

LISA: Clay, thank you so much. 

CLAY: It's been my pleasure. 

LISA: I'm Lisa Birnbach for howdini.