The only reason you love chocolate is because of FUNGUS.
Cacao seeds contain high amounts of polyphenols, making them intensely bitter & unpleasant. There are two natural fungi that do the heavy lifting in turning them into chocolate.
Let's do a quick tour of the process of chocolate making.— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Seed pods grow directly on the trunk or main branches of the Theobroma cacao (unlike most fruit that grows on branch-ends).
Pods are broken open & pulp allowed to liquefy on grates ("sweating"). Then a fermentation in piles or tubs for 3-7 days.
The final step is sun-drying then shipment.— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
There are two fungi naturally found on seed pods:
1. Picha kudriavzevii (a unicellular yeast)
2. Geotrichum candidum (multicellular fungus)
Also present are lactic acid & acetic acid bacteria. Between them all they acidify & break down as much as 90% of the bitter polyphenols.— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Along the way, they kill the plant embryo, preventing germination. They also release peptides & amino acids from the seed, adding flavor elements.
The result of this fermentation is a smooth-tasting, high-fat seed that doesn't rot easily & won't germinate in transport.— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
After roasting, grinding, mixing with sugar, 'conching' (mixing & aeration), and tempering… we have the delicious taste & texture we love.
But we haven't explored the *dark side* of these lovable fungi yet!— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
P. kudriavzevii is ALSO an emerging human pathogen & is naturally resistant to standard anti-fungal therapy.
Most disease is associated with newborns, those with immunocompromise, the elderly. It's an opportunist: as happy to eat YOU as a cacao pod.— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Geotrichum is well established as a fungus of aged cheese rinds & there are >100 species in the genus… but some of them are opportunistic pathogens with mortality rates above 70%, especially in cancer patients & the immunocompromised.
— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
That's the bargain we make with fungi: they make things more edible or tasty for us, but it's a Faustian deal with a devil that would just as happily eat US.
For now, however, victory is ours!— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Baud
Fungi are natural. How bad could they be? #MAHA
They Call Me Noni
Very informative. Thank you AL. I had no idea chocolate was fermented. But it does make sense as a lot of life’s favorite vices involve fermentation. Nothing is better than a meal including steak, red wine and dark chocolate. Nothing.
Wapiti
Interesting about the fruit growing from the trunk. Papaya also grows its fruit that way.
cain
Great and informative article, thank you!
narya
Michael Pollan had a short series on Netflix (Cooked) that included detail on this. It was a four part thing and I liked it, despite occasional issues with Pollan.
ETA: reminds me of calling a vanilla soy latte “three bean soup.”
WaterGirl
I saw the first few images and had to look away. I don’t want to risk my love of chocolate by knowing how the sausage is made!
Gin & Tonic
I’m putting this in the Shit I Don’t Need to Know file.
Gin & Tonic
@They Call Me Noni: Except the thing you do after.
Craig
In the context of me watching The Last of Us this week I didn’t really need to know that chocolate is going to maybe infect me.
Trollhattan
The Swiss are working on using more of the entire pod, which could save the chocolate industry.
Ten Bears
As I stir up a cup of hot Mayan style, easy on the chilis …
lee
Went on a tour of a cacao farm in Kauai. It was really amazing. We got to sample each step of the process.
NeenerNeener
This makes me wonder who first had the idea to do all this to cocoa beans and get something edible out of it. Because this process is not intuitively obvious.
waspuppet
Definitely one of those foods where you’re like, “Who was the first person to look at this and go ‘Yeah I can work with this!’?”
SiubhanDuinne
I’m calling my next band “The Lovable Fungi.”
waspuppet
@NeenerNeener: HA just said the same thing.
Same thing with tamarind. I got some paste and make my own tamarind chutney, but yikes it’s two parts sugar to one part tamarind and it’s still not exactly sweet.
Melancholy Jaques
@NeenerNeener:
It was the Olmecs around 1200 BCE. The Mayans later refined the process & gave it the name xocolatl.
They Call Me Noni
@Gin & Tonic: The nap?
satby
@Trollhattan: That will be a fantastic advancement if the early results can continue and be scaled up.
Baud
I do want to express my appreciation for not only having AL back but for all the cool political and non-political content she finds for us.
VeniceRiley
@Trollhattan: Interesting and very cool!
Geminid
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m calling my next band “The Dead Sea Squirrels.”
catclub
So is lightning.
Old School
@NeenerNeener:
People had longer attention spans back then.
Randal Sexton
@They Call Me Noni: Fresh Dungeness crab, West coast IPA and milk chocolate for me.
Baud
@NeenerNeener:
I always fell that way about textiles.
Baud
@Baud:
Fell = felt
Mai Naem mobile
@waspuppet: i bet tamarind’s use originally started as tamarind added to something sugary rather than sugar being added to tamarind.
WTFGhost
@WaterGirl: There’s nothing really gross about it. You let the cacao sit and sun dry, and the fungi breaks down bitter stuff, leaving behind tasty chocolate pre-cursor. You can ignore weird stuff like “fermentation” because you know the end result is just going to be a cacao bean.
@Geminid: I want to call one “Violation of the Confessional Seals” with on horrified seal face per band member, all staring at a cross. Thankfully, I suck at music, and band name creation, so it’ll never happen.
Indycat32
@waspuppet: I always wondered that about oysters. I’m guessing someone on the verge of starvation.
Satanley (aka weasel)
This is a great opportunity to share this entertaining thread on making chocolate from scratch at home…
https://bsky.app/profile/seamus.bsky.social/post/3lakrb63n7s27
“OK- here we go. Sorry for the delay, I was not prepared for the exertion required in the thrill-a-minute adventure that is… CACAO FERMENTATION.
Yes, this will actually take 5 days. After that two days of drying. I’m not making this up.
Nothing happens.
Really.
You’ll see.
Anyway, off we go!”
(and if you enjoy this thread, you might also enjoy another by the same author on making sourdough from wild rye yeast. Easy to find from his profile page)
They Call Me Noni
@Randal Sexton: can’t do milk chocolate and I’ve now got my 3 1/2 year old great granddaughter hooked on dark chocolate too. Much to the chagrin of her parents. And goat cheese. Kid loves goat cheese.
Old School
Tommy Tuberville is not running for reelection. He’s leaving the Senate to run for governor of Alabama.
MattF
One does wonder about early humanoids— they seemed to have tried to eat a rather wide variety of… whatever. Like, ‘Hmm, that slimy stuff inside those seashells. How does that taste?” I should add a helpful link here for your high-end chocolate needs… how about the Chocosphere.
J.
Well, that explains zombies.
Anne Laurie
Quite literally, according to best current anthropological guesses. Soft materials (down, loose wool, vegetable fluff) stuffed inside ‘clothing’ would pack down (‘felt’) over time…
MattF
@Old School: So the mean IQ of the Senate will go up a few points, since the mean is quite sensitive to outliers.
Baud
@Old School:
He’s one of the worst. Sadly, I don’t see another Doug Jones coming out of AL, and I only give the Alabama GOP a 35% chance of nominating a child molester.
Old School
jonas
@NeenerNeener: Probably some desperate starving guy who came across a cracked, dessicated, mold-covered cacao pod on the footpath with a few dried-out pods left in it, wiped them off, tried one, and went “hey, this isn’t half bad!”
jonas
@Old School: Ugh. That means a GOP primary in Alabama. My bet is on them nominating whatever tatted-up skinhead is the current head of the Aryan Nation gang in the state’s largest prison.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
When we were in Costa Rica, we had a tour of a chocolate farm where they demonstrated the process from pod to bar. It was really interesting. At the end, they had a vat of molten chocolate and lots of options to add to it like herbs, nuts, and many kinds of hot peppers. Each person was given a spoon so you could scoop up some chocolate and add whatever you wanted. There were several young boys on the tour and they went back multiple times to try them all. Glad I wasn’t in the car with them on the way home! :-)
mrmoshpotato
@Old School: Was the Senate post too difficult for the football coach?
Baud
@NeenerNeener:
@jonas:
First, man invented beer.
Second, man asked his fellow man to hold his beer.
The rest is history.
Lyrebird
That’s my theory about eating snails!
sab
@mrmoshpotato: Too far from his home in Florida. Alabama is right across the border.
Melancholy Jaques
@jonas:
There was a time when it would be which person is the most racist, but now it’s which person is the most slavish worshipper of that asshole.
JML
@Baud: they’ll absolutely nominate another child molester, just a question of whether they get outed for it or not…and whether or not enough non-democrats will care. standards keep going down in the GOP. All that’s left is: slavish worship of the Current Occupant.
Gloria DryGarden
@Anne Laurie: Genius!
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: women invented/ made beer. Long history.
@Lyrebird: my guess is practicality. There are so many of them in a well watered garden, eating the lettuces and such. Gather them up, waste not, let’s try cooking them up. Voila…I think about this as I pick them off my plants after a rain..
Josie
@They Call Me Noni:
I think the love of dark chocolate is genetic. I loved it from the beginning and my brothers did not. One granddaughter is a devotee and one is not. It must have to do with taste buds.
Gloria DryGarden
@jonas: maybe the person who found those cacao seeds had some dates in her travel snacks, and found the combination quite good. Hmm
sab
@waspuppet: My dog will eat just about anything. I figure early people were the same.
WTFGhost
@Josie: There’s also a great difference in chocolate quality. A good dark chocolate will melt in the mouth like butter, leaving a smooth texture, no grit (from the chocolate, at least!), and should have a complex flavor, like coffee or red wine. It might be a flavor you don’t like, mind you… but you’d still notice different types of flavors in it.
It’s possible to be turned off by dark chocolate, and never become re-interested in it. It’s also perfectly possible to find it bad, or at least, not good.
Ben Cisco
@Old School: DAMNIT
satby
@Baud: I ❤️ that too!
satby
@Old School: poor Alabama. Will he finally move to the state?
sab got there first
WTFGhost
@Lyrebird: It’s funny to think about, but, most of the time, humans decided to try what “that animal over there is eating.” Otters break open oysters on a rock, so early seaside humans would learn from that. Now, who first saw snails being consumed… well, I’ve heard escargot can be tasty, but you need to starve the snails (or so I’ve heard) before killing and eating them, to make sure the alimentary canal is empty.
I don’t know why or who figured that out. Maybe Ratatouille showed up with some butter and garlic?
RevRick
@Old School: Then there are the original cashews with their high arsenic content! That had to be bred out.
And what about all the vegetables bred from the mustard plant?
BTW, escargot — it leaves a slime trail, let’s eat that.
satby
@RevRick: the butter and garlic cover up the slime taste.
Gloria DryGarden
@jonas: I really love this image, and short story, the possible discovery of chocolate.
in terms of what that animal over there is eating, I read that’s how coffee was discovered or put into use. The local goats, in Ethiopia I think, were more energetic and jumpy, so they watched to see what they were eating. Let me have some of that…
RevRick
@Josie: The one great genetic food divide is cilantro. Many like it in their Thai or Mexican food. Others say it tastes like soap. Those who enjoy it are the genetic mutation.
RevRick
@satby: I’ve tried it and liked it (much to my surprise).
sab
@RevRick: To me it is soap. I have heard that a mix of Italian parsley and basil come close as a substitute.
Gloria DryGarden
On fungus, fermentation, and natural things.
tea is fermented. The differences between green black and oolong teas is somehow related to which process the leaves undergo, for how long. I wish I knew more. But it’s so yummy.
thinking about “death by natural causes” : some natural things: fungus, virus, ticks, bacteria, parasites, amoebas. Sorry, morbid thoughts. I work hard to stave off or get through the viral illness cultured in school children. Not my favorite part of “natural” or of “culture”
Time to go eat more dark chocolate, maybe with a cup of jasmine green tea…
Gloria DryGarden
@sab: arugula is pretty good, too, kind of spicy nutty. It doesn’t taste like cilantro positive, but it is an interesting flavor. And basil comes in several varietals and flavors, cinnamon basil, lemon basil, etc.. interesting flavors that you like, that’s the point.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
Well, I already knew I was a mutation, this just confirms it!
My wife thinks it tastes like soap, but I like it in food.
lowtechcyclist
@Melancholy Jaques:
Not that there tends to be a whole lot of daylight between the two.
Gloria DryGarden
@Trollhattan: the natural grocers had some cacao fruit for sale. As a dried fruit. I haven’t finished the package…
And I think I found some chocolate with more of the whole plant in it, it wasn’t bad. I think it’s a work in progress.
lowtechcyclist
@Old School:
And the scary thing is, a majority of Alabamans will decide that he’s the sort of intellect they need in the job.
There are six states I’ve never been to. Alabama is one of them. I’m not in any hurry to rectify this.
Gloria DryGarden
@Ben Cisco: why aren’t there more people of honor and intelligence running for office, and winning?
hasnt tuberville done enough harm?
Ben Cisco
@lowtechcyclist: It just keeps getting better.
And by “better” I mean…
Shalimar
@Baud: There is a RawStory editor, Sarah Burris, who people complain about all the time because she leaves a lot of typos and confusing parts in the stories she submits. She’s not perfect, and yes she could use an editor before she posts occasionally, but Sarah Burris picks out half of the things on that website that I end up reading. She has great instincts for stories, and her interests are always dependable.
Anne Laurie is like our Sarah Burris without the mistakes and with even better interests. She finds so much good stuff and saves me so much time each day surfing around the internet.
schrodingers_cat
@RevRick: Its the cashew skins that are poisonous. Cashewnut is the seed not the fruit.
Trivia Man
@Old School: Hooray! Ron Johnson gets his title back! Dumbest senator in America, to match his peer Glen Grothman (aka America’s dumbest congressman)
Harrison Wesley
@RevRick: That’s how the tradition of washing rice before cooking started. Rice hulls have lots of arsenic. I guess it just became a practice identfied with cooking rice, since it shouldn’t be necessary with white rice.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: And they’re related to Poison Ivy and Poison Oak. I’m anxious about them because I’ve had terrible rashes from walking near Poison Oak on a warm day.
MattF
@RevRick: I’m in the ‘tastes like soap’ group. Some say that tasting-like-soap can be ‘fixed’ by eating a lot of cilantro, but I’m not going to be the one to try that.
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: i have 5 states yet to visit, also missing AL.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: What are the other five?
I have lived in ten. Been thru many others but not long enough to have more than an an impression.
They Call Me Noni
@Josie: That sounds right. She also loves sour things. Lemons, limes, pickles. And she loves any vegetable. Eats green beans for a snack.
schrodingers_cat
@Dan B: That’s the skin though not the seed. I don’t think I have ever seen cashews with their skin on in the US.
RevRick
@schrodingers_cat: I had a momentary brain fart. I should have said almonds. Cashew skins have the same compound as poison ivy and the nut needs to be roasted or blanched, because the oil can contaminate the nut.
Trivia Man
@MattF: I avoided it for years because of the soap taste. One day i ate something with it and realized it no linger tastes like soap. Still nothing to rave about, but much more convenient. We were in some food place, maybe chipotle, and every single item on the menu had cilantro. Mrs T cant eat it so we left.
MattF
@Harrison Wesley: But I’ve found that washing is needed for brown rice. Without washing, the hot water doesn’t penetrate into the grain and you get rice grains that are mushy on the outside and undercooked on the inside.
Shalimar
@lowtechcyclist: There are only 4 states I have never been to, and 3 could be solved with a quick daytrip north of Massachusetts. The other one is Hawaii.
sab
@Dan B: I am also that sensitive. Catch it from my dog every summer. And of course when the neighbor weedwhacked his at the property line.
Mangos are also a problem. Same chemical in the peel. I break out if I eat them in the summer when I am also exposed to poison ivy. Not a lot. Just tiny sores around my mouth.
I never had a problem with cashews, but Notmax showed me how difficult the harvesting and processing is on the women who do it. Their arms and faces are completely enflamed.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: Wikipedia says the fruit as well but they’re treated with heat to eliminate the urishiol.
lowtechcyclist
@sab: Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa.
Alaska’s on my bucket list, the others not so much.
mrmoshpotato
@MattF:
I can’t see that happening. Food can be overseasoned with cilantro, so eating a ton of it can’t be pleasant even if you don’t have the tastes-like-soap gene.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: Your not bucket list does seem sensible, except there are excellent jackals there. Any regrets about visiting Ohio?
BethanyAnne
@lowtechcyclist: I moved to Arkansas recently for family reasons. It’s absolutely beautiful here, but lonely. I need to find a way back to people I connect with.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid:
@SiubhanDuinne:
Me, I’m still going with “The Woke Marxist Popes.”
Dan B
@BethanyAnne: I lived in Arkansas as a kid. I understand needing people you can connect with. This is true in much of the south and the upper Midwest. I was in Arkansas during Jim Crow and the Klan. I doubt it’s changed much. The bigotry and ignorance were formidable.
stinger
@lowtechcyclist:
With your nym, I’d think you might be interested in RAGBRAI.
BethanyAnne
@Dan B: I almost never have any talk of substance with anyone here. I moved up here because I was Mom’s caregiver, and she wanted to be next to her great grandkids before she passed away. Which took about six months. My sister took me in, and I live in her garage apartment now. I’m slowly clawing my way back into a sustainable financial position, and then I’m figuring out how to live near the people that I love.
UncleEbeneezer
@sab: I got a horrible case of poison oak on a camping trip when I made the mistake of drunkenly walking around barefoot at night. Got it all on the bottom of my feet, between my toes…it was miserable. Ending up going to the ER for it and the nurse said it was one of the worst cases he’d ever seen.
BethanyAnne
Oooo, Styx just announced a new studio album, “Circling From Above”. Looking forward to hearing it. Their announcement stream is still going on: https://ctrk.klclick.com/l/01JW9W8BVZBVAM4GQEKEDZA3FS_1
Dan B
@BethanyAnne: We lived in Northeast Arkansas. My mother was from Fort Smith in the Northwest and had aunts and uncles in Clarksville. The women taught at the college, now the University of the Ozarks thanks to Helen Walton.
Her father, my grandfather, owned a coal mine, a grocery wholesale business, and a 600 acre ranch. He studied Greek and Latin and read the classics in the original language so they were all well educated. But the people in Northeast Arkansas were not and were hostile to education. I suspect that Fayetteville might be different.
Elizabelle
@Old School: I think governor will suit Tuberville much better.
For one thing, he can allow executions. I see him liking that power.
Elizabelle
@BethanyAnne: No idea where the people you love live, but Virginia is a wonderful state. Suspect most of it is still relatively affordable, and our politics are not that embarrassing. Lots of good universities and culture, FWIW.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@catclub: so are asbestos, lead, mercury, most pathogens…..
BethanyAnne
@Dan B: I’m maybe 5 miles away from that college, in the rural bits surrounding Clarksville.
BethanyAnne
@Elizabelle: Most of my chosen family ended up following me to the SF Bay Area in 98. When the crash of 2008 happened, I had to move back to Houston. Then Mom got older and sicker, and I dropped my career to care for her. I’m hoping to move back to Berkeley, or find somewhere my love and I can settle, instead of being 600 miles apart like now.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@MattF: the secret to brown rice is 1) get the good stuff from your nearest Asian market, because the brown rice in regular supermarkets is always stale, and 2) cook it in the instapot: 24 minutes at high pressure, no washing, no worry because the instapot always shuts off automatically & just leaves it on warm
Elizabelle
@BethanyAnne: Good luck to you. Hard for anywhere to compete w the Bay Area, save for affordability.
BethanyAnne
@Elizabelle: Thanks. Yeah, that’s always the rub. But no place has felt as much like home as Berkeley has. And 2 people that I’ve been close to for 40 years live there. I’ll find a way.
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: I guess you’re going to be rid of Youngkin soon. (I always thought the one-term limit for governor was kind of draconian, but it has its advantages.
Hasn’t DOGE kind of blown a hole in the state’s economy?
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin: Yes, DOGE predation should be a big issue in the governor’s race.
Ruckus
@sab:
I’ve lived in three but have traveled/worked in 49 states.
Born west coast, lived on east coast for 2 years and in upper middle for 3-4 months and in both southern and northern CA.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
None whatsoever. I was most recently there with my wife and son last spring to visit some old friends of ours in NW Ohio and see the eclipse. I figured it was one area along the path of totality that wouldn’t be mobbed, and I was right.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: Wasn’t that interesting? All the quiet birds.
Our neighbor let her cat out and it almost got run over by the mailtruck while cat was chasing a quiet bird. But all three (mailman, bird, cat) surived. So that was good.
I loved the all around the horizen dusk/dawn during the eclipse.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: My dad saw it a few weeks before he died. He was interested. Thank God we got him in the new place because in the old place he would have been stuck in his room.
frosty
@sab: In 5th grade my younger son had an assignment to color all the states he’d been in and put a dot in each state one of his parents had been in. He blew the class away with 33 for him and 49 for me. We’d gone to California then Yellowstone the two previous summers, seeing the big National Parks.
I got to Alaska (#49) with my grandmother in 1978. It took me until 2023 to finally get to Hawaii.
sab
@frosty: That is impressive. True partiots. No snark there. You can’t truly love what you haven’t seen. Plus why go there otherwise,