It’s All About the Crystals
November 2, 2010
As many of you chocolate lovers already know, the fat in chocolate is called cocoa butter. What you might not know is that cocoa butter has special characteristics that make chocolate a very unique food.
One of those characteristics is that cocoa butter can crystallize in six different forms.
I've written before about tempering chocolate. What tempering does for chocolate is ensure that the cocoa butter solidifies into the best form of crystal.
Each of the six crystal forms have different properties. I put together a chart to demonstrate these properties:
| Crystal Name | Melting Temperature | Description |
| I | 17 °C (63 °F) | Soft, crumbly, melts too quickly. |
| II | 21 °C (70 °F) | Soft, crumbly, melts too quickly. |
| III | 26 °C (79 °F) | Firm, poor snap, melts too quickly. |
| IV | 28 °C (82 °F) | Firm, good snap, melts too quickly. |
| V | 34 °C (93 °F) | Glossy, firm, best snap, melts closest to body temperature. |
| VI | 36 °C (97 °F) | Hard, takes weeks to form. |
Taking a look at this table, can you see which form of crystal is the best? Yep, crystal number V is the winner!
Stable crystal type V provides the best appearance, snap, texture, and shelf life. So when tempering chocolate, this is the form we're always trying to achieve.
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