Smithsonian.com

Photo: Shelley & Dave

Scientists have found a way to replace about 50 percent of chocolate’s fat with fruit juice. To achieve this healthier variety of chocolate, researchers at the University of Warwick removed cocoa butter and milk fats from milk, dark and white chocolate and submitted them with tiny droplets of cranberry and orange juice using a method called the Pickering emulsion.

The researchers claim that the less fatty chocolate still has the same satisfying and mouth-watering impact as the calorific kind, though it does taste a bit fruity. They say chocolate producers could use water instead, though, to give the bar a more traditional flavor.

“It’s the fat that gives chocolate all the indulgent sensations that people crave – the silky smooth texture and the way it melts in the mouth but still has a ‘snap’ to it when you break it with your hand,” the researchers say in a press release. ”We’ve found a way to maintain all of those things that make chocolate ‘chocolatey’ but with fruit juice instead of fat.”

The researchers hope the chocolate industry adopts the new method as a means of creating delicious but healthy treats.

But will this invention hold up against actual full-throttle fatty, legit chocolate, or will it join other poser chocolate options, like “brown rice” brownies, chocolate rice cakes and fat free chocolate pudding designed only to satisfy a quick craving fix rather than provide the luscious, indulgent pleasure of biting into a bar of Godiva or Neuhaus? Only time, and taste testing, will tell.

The synthesized chocolate. Photo: Journal of Materials Chemistry

More from Smithsonian.com:

 Becoming a Chocolate Connoisseur 

A Brief History of Chocolate