ACS Chocolate Workshop Now Online

A new website on the chemistry of chocolate, provided by the American Chemical Society, is available to reporters at Content includes the how and why of using kitchen chemistry to troubleshoot chocolate recipes and substituting the “new” chocolates in favorite old recipes. Chocolate-inspired news releases and research articles from the Society’s peer-reviewed publications are also provided.

The website is a timely resource for science or food journalists who might be looking for some holiday ideas or want to do a story on chocolate for the holidays. The materials were assembled for the Society’s recent food writers’ workshop, Cooks with Chemistry — The Elements of Chocolate.

The October workshop featured presentations from biochemist Shirley Corriher and Harold McGee, both award-winning cookbook authors, and food and flavor chemist Sara Risch.   

With chocolate consumption nearing an annual peak as the holidays approach, the content from this workshop explains the common elements between chemistry and cooking. Recipes are also provided, including a preview of Corriher’s Brownie Chronicles, from her upcoming book, Bakewise. 

Established in 2000, the ACS Cooks with Chemistry series is designed to offer journalists a new perspective on the science of food. Additional food chemistry information is also available in the ACS’s peer-reviewed Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

For interviews with the chocolate workshop participants or other information, please contact newsroom@acs.org. The American Chemical Society – the world’s largest scientific society – is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.