Is this Chocolate?

The "this" in the title refers to a scientific development that had people talking at the Cacao & Chocolate Summit I went to in May 2022. What kind of new product is this? You need to read about it here, then pop back and give us your opinion.


Did you read the article?

No? Go read it!


Read the article now?

If no, go read it!

If yes, good, continue please.


The main criteria we use here on The Chocolate Cult is that if it comes from the cacao or cocoa tree, we'll review it. Then we apply legal definitions to determine if products are what the claim to be.

If California Cultured's science is growing "chocolate" from cacao cells, does that count toward our main criteria?

The cells had to come from a cacao tree and its fruit to begin with, correct? But how many cloning lines is too much for it to be considered "chocolate"?

The California Cultured website claims this isn't a substitute because it from cacao cells. 

Folks at the chocolate summit last week disagreed. Those folks were farmers, traders, and chocolate makers, they have vested interest in this development.

If cloned chocolate were cheaper, I'm betting some makers would sign on. I doubt it will be that cheap for a long, long time. 

The goals of the company doing this cloning sound fairly ideal, don't they? No deforestation. No child slavery (shouldn't it be no slavery period?).

I want to read  your initial thoughts on this new science of chocolate.

Comments