It's a mystery I have a big bag of chocolate covered almonds at my desk and I've been sitting here looking at each one very carefully before I put it in my mouth. I'm wondering how they get the chocolate on the almond. The chocolate is perfect at all points around the almond; there are no flat parts. This means that the almonds don't sit on anything while the chocolate is drying and there's a good (and I mean good in all senses of the word) quarter inch of chocolate around each one. I have a few theories, but I don't think any of them are very likely. 1. The almonds are launched through the air, passing through a stream of chocolate which then dries around them before they land. 2. The almonds are dropped through a layer of chocolate which is directly above a bath of icy water which hardens the chocolate immediately. 3. The chocolate and the almonds have the exact same density so the almonds remain suspended in the chocolate until it dries and they're chipped out and buffed smooth and round. 4. The almonds are coated in far more chocolate than is necessary so the flat parts can be sanded off. 5. The almonds are suspended in a mold with some sort of gel which is replaced gradually with chocolate. However, in the end the question doesn't matter. On the cosmic scale, how the chocolate covered almonds taste weighs in far more heavily than the mystery of their creation. And they taste goooood. |