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You’d expect a chocolate teapot to be completely
useless (except for devouring), but believe it or not, this one actually
works. Engineered by Nestlé Master Chocolatier John Costello, this fully
functional chocolate teapot is meant for brewing tea. It works exactly
like a regular teapot – it won’t melt and the tea comes out tasting a
bit like chocolate.
Costello and his colleagues decided to make the pot after they were
challenged by a BBC TV series called The One Show. They had to prove
that the statement ‘there’s nothing more useless than a chocolate
teapot’ was false. And they managed to do just that.
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So how exactly do you go about making a heat-resistant chocolate teapot?
Well, it all depends on the type of chocolate you choose. Costello and
his team opted for dark chocolate with 65 percent cocoa solids, because
its low fat content would make it more resistant to heat.
Once they had the raw material ready, the team conducted a series of
experiments to determine the right thickness for the chocolate layer
forming the pot. They spent about six weeks planning and experimenting
with various shapes and various types of chocolate, before they hit upon
the perfect formula.
“We need to work out at what point the thickness of the chocolate will
retain the heat from the water,” Costello explained. They started off
with a balloon experiment, where they dipped a small balloon into some
pre-prepared chocolate and allowed it to dry.
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The dipping process was repeated several times, until it gave them an
idea of how many layers are required for the chocolate pot to withstand
hot water. “If you get the right thickness of chocolate, what happens is
that the water temperature cools down slightly, and then retains the
heat inside so it doesn’t leak, doesn’t melt,” said Costello.
Another challenge the team faced was deciding the size of the hole at
the top of the teapot. A small hole would result in more trapped steam,
so they made it bigger than that of a regular teapot.
Next, they created a teapot mold by casting an actual teapot in
silicone, and then filled it up with melted chocolate. They shook the
mold to get rid of air bubbles and tipped out the excess chocolate. Once
again, they repeated the process until they reached the desired number
of layers.
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When the chocolate was set, they removed it carefully from the mold, and
pierced a hole through the spout. Costello said that the process of
making the chocolate teapot from start to finish takes about
two-and-a-half hours. He also revealed that when they first used the
chocolate teapot, they were expecting more of a chocolate concoction
than real tea. But that wasn’t the case at all.
“You need to pour the water in a certain way and avoid stirring it,” he
said. “Let it brew like you would a normal cup of tea and just let it
stand for a while, and the chocolate on the inside of the shell melts
but doesn’t move anywhere. So you get a very, very small amount of
residue coming up to the top.” |
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When the teapot was put to the test, it brewed a perfect cup of tea. The
representative from The One Show was actually pleasantly surprised.
“It’s tea!” he exclaimed. “It’s a little bit sweet, there’s a little bit
chocolate going on, sort of a hint of chocolate. It’s quite nice, I
actually like it with a bit of chocolate. Perfect!”
“You can make a teapot out of chocolate,” he finally conceded. |