It happens all too often: you come home from work and open up a chocolate bar you've been saving all week to find it's turned gross and spotty.
What happened to your tasty chocolate bar, and is it still safe to eat? I know a lot of people who will just throw a chocolate bar out if they see these white spots on their candy, but that's a little rash.
In fact, chocolate does taste different when these spots appear, but it's still safe to eat. They're caused by a chemical reaction called sugar bloom, where sugar forms tiny crystals on the surface of your chocolate.
If you're like me and you prefer a cold, crisp chocolate bar, you'll probably run into sugar bloom a lot because you store chocolate in the fridge. If the appearance of sugar bloom turns your stomach, you can make it go away.
But first, you'll need to play doctor and identify if your chocolate is suffering from sugar bloom or another condition called fat bloom.
So what does fat bloom look like?
Fat bloom closely resembles sugar bloom, and the main difference is what causes fat bloom in the first place.
Unlike sugar bloom, the fat inside your chocolate bar moves to the outside of the bar after temperatures fluctuate. So if you leave a candy bar in the heat, then bring it inside, you might notice white spots.
Fat bloom can also be a sign that your chocolate is poorly made. It might have been heated and cooled incorrectly, or it could be missing important ingredients that keep fats like cocoa butter from blooming out.
Whatever the cause of your chocolate's spots, you can still eat the bar if you don't mind the texture. These bars are also perfect for recipes, because melting the chocolate will get rid of the bloom's nasty texture.
If you really can't enjoy a bloomed chocolate bar, running a hair dryer on low heat over the bar will usually melt the bloom back into the rest of he chocolate. It sounds a little extreme, but I'll do anything to enjoy my chocolate!
Share this story if you always wondered about those weird spots!
[H/T: kitchn]