According to senior author John E. Hayes, Assistant Professor of Food Science and Director of the Sensory Evaluation Center, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, their main objective in this particular study zeroed in on identifying whether rejection thresholds for added bitterness in chocolate ice cream has a direct correlation with personal preferences for solid milk or dark chocolate.

"Estimating rejection thresholds could be an effective, rapid tool to determine acceptable formulations or quality limits when considering attributes that become objectionable at high intensities," he said.

The research team came up with a control sample of plain chocolate ice cream and samples that have different level of sucrose octaacetate, a food-safe bitter ingredient utilized in modifying the bitterness of ice cream sans messing up the rest of the sensory qualities of the samples, such as texture.

The said sample were given in pairs to 96 non-smoking members of the Penn State community aged 18 to 45. 46 participants chose milk chocolate. Every participant was required to specify which among the two blind samples they liked better. They each tasted one spoonful of ten different samples, rinsing with water between pairs.

Turns out, the ones who chose solid dark chocolate displayed a remarkable higher rejection threshold - about twice as high - for sucrose octaacetate in the chocolate ice cream as compared to those who chose milk chocolate. The study is published in the August issue of the Journal of Dairy Science.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think you can fully enjoy chocolate until you have acquired the love of dark chocolate. Chocolate, in all its glorious forms, is always head-tilting good. Me, I swore by milk chocolate growing up. However, when I started forming a bond with dark chocolate, that’s when I realized that chocolate, indeed, is the food of the gods. It has every right to be.

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Joanna Maligaya

Staff Writer/Content Developer at Chocolate University Online

Ever since she can remember, Joanna has always considered chocolate as the ultimate food for her soul. She believes in the saying, “9 out of 10 people love chocolate, and the 10th always lies.”

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