Help! My Chocolate Has Melted Part 2: Has my chocolate gone bad?

When you purchase chocolate, you truly want it to be in perfect form. But there are times when you arrive home from the store or your vacation, and your chocolate looks less than perfect when opening it. There are several reasons why your chocolate might look bad, or even moldy, when in fact it is not 'bad' or 'moldy'.

Did you open a new package of chocolate and it looked like this?
This chocolate has not gone bad, it has unfortunately 'bloomed'.
It was made in Trinidad and purchased at the Trinidad airport,
and could have bloomed at the chocolate maker's shop or in transport,
since temperatures are regularly over 30 degrees Celsius in that country.
This chocolate can be re-tempered and 'saved'.

The chocolate has come out of temper, or was never tempered properly in the first place. If the chocolate has a white film on it, this is not mold (or mould as we might say in Canada or the UK) it is 'bloom'; either fat bloom or sugar bloom. This film can have occurred in one of three ways:

1. The chocolate was either not tempered by the manufacturer in the first place, which may be an indication of quality, because it truly is a scientific process of ensuring the correct crystals are formed during melting, tempering and the setting of the chocolate. So the bloom either occurred immediately and was packaged regardless by the manufacturer, or it was seeded with unstable cocoa butter crystals which then transformed to a higher level of crystal over time, so it bloomed some time after it was packaged, which shows on the surface of the chocolate bar.

2. The chocolate is exposed to humidity - either before packaging, with improper packaging, or after it has been opened and exposed to humid air. The bloom in this case is sugar bloom. I have had this problem when trying to make chocolate too late in the summer/Spring season - even when the dehumidifier is running all day!

3. The chocolate has been exposed to heat and fat bloom occurs. This often happens when traveling, or when chocolate is left in the car, even for a few minutes while you are running errands. The temperature in the car can reach 30º Celsius rather quickly once the air conditioning is turned off, and chocolate should be stored in a cool dark place at temperatures of about 18º Celsius to 21º Celsius.

This is a block of cocoa butter or cocoa 'fat', so you can see how the chocolate
would get light-coloured streaks or spots on it when fat bloom occurs.
It is simply the fat rising to the surface of the chocolate.

What to do about bloomed chocolate?

You have two options:

Do nothing: If you are not picky about slight taste differences in your chocolate, you can just eat it as is, or melt it down and put it in brownies, or chop up and use it as chocolate chips in your next batch of cookies.

Temper it: If you paid a lot for your chocolate and really were in it for the natural origin cocoa bean flavours, I recommend you melt and temper the chocolate. It is easy - just follow the instructions at this link: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2014/04/there-is-more-than-one-method-to-temper.html. Also, read Part 1 of Help! My Chocolate Has Melted by clicking here for a quick microwave method for melting and tempering your chocolate.

Stay Tuned! An 'EZ' way to temper your chocolate, coming soon to the blog...

I want to tell you how I've been tempering chocolate for the last year. I have the perfect tool to temper chocolate quickly and efficiently, so if you are starting a chocolate-making or chocolatier business, you'll want to stay tuned for this article.