Bitterness Key to Dark Chocolate Lovers’ Cravings

It may seem like common sense that dark chocolate lovers tolerate significantly more bitterness in chocolate than those who like milk chocolate, but researchers recently discovered just how large that difference can be, according to a new study published in the Journal of Food Science.

Researchers at Penn State University added a food-safe bitter chemical to chocolate, finding that people who prefer dark chocolate tolerated about two-and-a-half-times as much of the additive as the milk chocolate consumers.

For the study, the researchers determined group rejection thresholds in solid chocolate-flavored compound coating for bitterness. The influences of self-identified preferences for milk or dark chocolate, as well as eating style (chewers compared to melters) on rejection thresholds were investigated. Stimuli included milk chocolate-flavored compound coating spiked with increasing amounts of sucrose octaacetate, a bitter and GRAS additive. Paired preference tests were used to determine the proportion of the group that preferred the blank. Across pairs, spiked samples were presented in ascending concentration.

The rejection threshold for the dark chocolate preferring group was significantly higher than the milk chocolate preferring group. Conversely, eating style did not affect group rejection thresholds, and there was no association between chocolate preference and eating style. Present work supports the theory that this method can be used to examine preferences within specific market segments and potentially individual differences as they relate to ingestive behavior. The researchers said the method provides a direct means to answer the question of how much is too much.