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DELICIOUS
CHOCOLATE
DELICIOUS
前段时间，电影《旺卡》热映。通过玩味巧克力的口感，创造独特的味觉体验，主人公旺卡最终名声大噪，成立了工厂，实现了自己的梦想。
其实，一直以来，科学家们也像旺卡一样，在丰富巧克力的口感与风味的道路上不断探索。
他们就是现实生活中巧克力界的奇妙掌舵者，塑造着巧克力的未来。
DELICIOUS
CHOCOLATE
DELICIOUS
01
丝般享受，
巧克力永远
Chocolate is an iconic eatable. Since confectioners invented bar chocolate about 180 years ago, it's captured the imagination of billions around the globe, though it's a simple enough recipe. Take the fermented, roasted beans of the cacao tree, grind the kernels to a paste, heat it and mix it with sugar, cocoa butter, and perhaps milk, and let cool it into the shape of your desire.
巧克力在美食界可谓稳坐神坛。大约 180 年前糖果商发明了固体巧克力块，自此以后，巧克力就一直在吸引着全球数以亿计的人们，激发出了人们无穷无尽的想象力与创造力。尽管它的制作方法相当简单，你只需取发酵、烘焙过的可可豆，磨成糊状，加热后混入糖、可可脂或牛奶，然后冷却成想要的形状。
Endless variations on this theme have leapt from the fertile minds of chocolatiers. Some are mainly manipulations of the human psyche, like the Kinder Egg, replete with the mystery of the toy hidden within, an invention that celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024.
在制作者的潜心巧思下，巧克力迸发出无数种可能。有些暗藏对人类心理的操控。比如装着隐藏玩具的健达奇趣蛋，兜售巧克力的同时更兜售神秘性。2024 年正好是这个创意的 50 周年。
健达奇趣蛋（图片来源：百度）
Either way, lowbrow or high, we can't get enough of the stuff. People in the US get through 9kg (20lb) of the stuff a year on average, making them the second biggest chocolate eaters in the world behind Switzerland, where they gobble down nearly 12kg (26lb) a year. In the UK, by comparison, the average person eats 3kg (7lb) a year. (Oddly enough, scientists have found a statistical correlation between chocolate consumption by a country and the number of Nobel Prizes winners it has, even after controlling for wealth.)
无论是出于对廉价甜食的渴望，还是追求一种高端的享受，我们对巧克力总是欲求不满的。美国人平均每年消耗 9 公斤（20 磅）巧克力，是全球第二大巧克力消费国，仅次于瑞士，瑞士人平均每年吃掉近 12 公斤（26 磅）巧克力。相比之下，英国人平均每年吃掉 3 公斤（7 磅）巧克力。（有趣的是，科学家们发现，一个国家的巧克力消费量与其诺贝尔奖获得者人数之间存在统计学相关性，即使在控制财富因素后仍然如此。）
02
声音
也可以影响
？！
A flute slowly ascends a scale, a gentle vibrato rounding out the notes. The warm, resonant sound contrasts sharply with the next recording. In this one, a violin is plucked in a dissonant pizzicato, with no reverberation to soften it. "It's tense," says Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho, a sound-engineer-turned-scientist who created the tracks. Each of these clips possesses a surprising power, he has discovered. They can change the taste of chocolate.
循着音阶，长笛音调缓缓转高，柔和的颤音使音符更加圆润动听。这温暖、悠扬的笛声与下一段录音形成了鲜明的对比。下一段中，小提琴被拨动着演奏，极其不和谐，也没有混响来缓和它的音色。“它听上去很紧张。”费利佩·雷诺索-卡瓦略（Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho）说，他从一名音响工程师转为了科学家。他创作了这些曲目，并发现，每一首曲目都具有惊人的力量——它们能够改变巧克力的味道。
Reinosa-Carvalho's own interest in how sound can shape taste was sparked by the work of Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford who studies how our senses beyond taste and smell affect our experience of food, and once found that hearing the crunch of crisps makes them more enjoyable. When he and Spence decided to collaborate, chocolate was a natural choice, because Reinosa-Carvalho was living in Belgium. "You can go deep with chocolate characteristics there," he says. For this study, the scientists worked with Dominique Persoone, head of The Chocolate Line, a renowned chocolate shop in Bruges, Belgium. They wanted to know if sound could make chocolate seem creamier, without altering the confection's makeup at all.
牛津大学实验心理学家查尔斯·斯宾塞（Charles Spence）的研究激发了雷诺萨-卡瓦略对声音如何塑造味觉的兴趣。斯宾塞研究了味觉和嗅觉以外的感官是如何影响食物带给我们的体验的，他曾经发现听到薯片的嘎吱声会让人更加愉悦。当两人决定合作时，巧克力成为了一个自然的选择，因为雷诺萨-卡瓦略住在比利时。“在那里，你可以深入了解巧克力的特征。”他说。在这项研究中，科学家们与比利时布鲁日著名的巧克力店 The Chocolate Line 的负责人 Dominique Persoone 合作。他们想知道，不改变巧克力本身的成分，声音是否可以使巧克力更加浓郁。
他们制作了一系列黑巧克力，可可含量分别为 71% 和 80%。配方中不含奶油或牛奶。每种巧克力都有两种形状，一种是光滑的圆形圆顶，另一种是棱角分明的钻石状。然后，雷诺萨-卡瓦略使用声音库中的音乐创作了两首长达一分钟的曲目，放给品尝巧克力的人们听。通过给参与者提供巧克力形状、配方和声音的不同组合，然后要求他们评价巧克力的浓郁度，研究人员可以看到声音是否影响了品尝体验。
"The results were amazing," says Reinosa-Carvalho. "More than the shape and the cocoa, the music affected the taste." The flute made the chocolate, whatever its shape and formula, seem both sweeter and creamier. The dissonant, pizzicato violin yielded ratings that were less creamy and more bitter. The alteration was not massive – on a seven-point scale, they could achieve a one-point difference – but it was extremely consistent.
“结果令人惊叹。”雷诺萨-卡瓦略说道，“音乐对味觉的影响超过了巧克力的形状和可可含量。”美妙的长笛声使巧克力，无论其形状和配方如何，看起来都更甜，更浓郁。不和谐的拨奏小提琴则使巧克力显得更轻淡、更苦涩。这带来的变化并不是巨大的——在七分制上，他们可以达到一分的差异——但结果非常一致。
我们往往认为味道和风味是我们所吃的东西固有的。但事实上，味觉是存在于食客大脑中的。改变大脑正在经历的事，就能够改变某种相当基本的东西。
味道是高度主观的，所以虽然有些人喜欢某些类型的巧克力，但另一些人却觉得它们令人厌恶（图片来源：Getty Images）
03
生物学因素
也
A thriving population of microbes, long gone by the time a bar reaches consumers, is also crucial to chocolate's taste. Cacao farmers break open the massive pods and scrape the goopy white insides, studded with cacao beans, into wooden boxes, or pile them into heaps. Then they let them ferment until the beans have turned from a pale colour to a reddish-brown colour when sliced open. Yeasts kick off the process.
在巧克力到达消费者手中前就已消失的微生物种群，其实也是影响巧克力风味的关键因素。可可种植者掰开巨大的豆荚，将粘稠的、布满可可豆的白色果肉刮入木箱中，或堆成一堆。然后，让它们发酵，直到豆子切开时从浅色变成红棕色。酵母启动了整个发酵的过程，细菌辅助。
生可可豆一开始颜色苍白，周围环绕着湿润的果肉，随着细菌和酵母的开始工作，果肉逐渐散开（图片来源：Getty Images）
控制发酵过程中的温度和酸度是科学家发现在影响生产可可的质量中的重要一环，当然细菌本身也很关键。
The genome of the lanky, glossy-leaved cacao tree holds other keys to chocolate's flavour. Mark Guiltinan, a cacao breeder at Pennsylvania State University, has worked to identify genes for metabolic enzymes and other proteins that control interesting traits in the tree. He and his colleagues are due to soon publish the genomes of 38 different trees. "These are very diverse cacaos," he said. "We have found all kinds of things in there."
有修长、光滑叶子的可可树的基因组也是影响巧克力风味的关键因素。宾夕法尼亚州立大学的可可育种专家马克·吉尔蒂南一直致力于鉴定控制树木有趣特征的代谢酶和其他蛋白质基因。他和同事们即将发布 38 棵不同树木的基因组。“这些可可树非常多样化，”他说，“我们在其中发现了各种各样的东西。”
-THE END-
重点词汇
manipulation
n. 手法；控制；操作法；(熟练的)操作operation, handling
例：
To this end, manipulation is often considered the most important attribute that contributes to the UX.
为了这个目的，操作性通常被认为是为用户体验作出贡献的最重要的属性。
reverberation
n. 回响；回声；反响
a loud noise that continues for some time after it has been produced because of the surfaces around it
例：
Its role is to stop the excessive reverberation of these longer strings.
它的作用就是个阻止这些长弦音的过度回响。
ferment
v. （使）发酵
to experience a chemical change because of the action of yeast or bacteria, often changing sugar to alcohol; to make sth change in this way
例：
Cider is made out of apples. It has to ferment for at least ten weeks before it is ready to drink.
苹果酒是用苹果酿造的。苹果酒至少要发酵十周才适合饮用。
原文链接：
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231211-the-real-life-willy-wonka-trying-to-change-chocolate
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231221-why-british-chocolate-tastes-the-way-it-does
https://www.delicious.com.au/food-files/article/does-british-chocolate-taste-better-than-australian-chocolate/tk1a8kx1
编译 | 蒋嘉和
排版 | 蒋嘉和
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