ON THE CUTTING EDGE: High-Tech Chocolate
The Associated Press reports that demand for premium chocolate has skyrocketed, in part because of a spate of studies suggesting the sweet offers cardiovascular and other health benefits, and that organic and dark chocolate are the fastest-growing segment. Now, “a new crop of high-tech confectioners are changing the industry with Silicon Valley-style innovation, antique German equipment and an obsession with the simple cocoa bean”:
As a software developer who worked with NASA, Timothy Childs built vision-tracking systems for the space shuttle. Now the former techie has a new venture that he says is out of this world: chocolate.
"The bean totally seduced me," said Childs, co-founder and "chief chocolate officer" of TCHO [pronounced “choh”], a San Francisco-based startup seeking to improve the quality of chocolate through scientific experimentation with flavors. "On a molecular level, making chocolate is enrapturing."
According to industry estimates, by 2011, annual chocolate sales in the U.S. are projected at $18 billion annually, up $2 billion in 2006.
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