Science of Chocolate at the South Florida Science Museum

It's not like we need to do a lot of experimentation to understand chocolate. It tastes good and, for most people, that's enough.Then again, there are plenty of foods out there that taste good. That doesn't sufficiently explain our obsessive, lusty world-wide orgy of a love affair with chocolate. We...

By Rebecca McBane

February 4, 2013

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It's not like we need to do a lot of experimentation to understand chocolate. It tastes good and, for most people, that's enough.

Then again, there are plenty of foods out there that taste good. That doesn't sufficiently explain our obsessive, lusty world-wide orgy of a love affair with chocolate. We view it as a sinful indulgence and yet it's also a health food. It's every kid's favorite food and what we use to woo our Valentines. Chocolate is...chocolate - perhaps the most unique food on the planet. So, what's up with that?

What better way to get people of all ages interested in science than to lure them with chocolate? The South Florida Museum of Science in West Palm Beach is well aware of this particular trick and have set up a trap to draw you with chocolate, then blind you with science.

"Bring your sweetheart to the museum for our annual chocolate event," said Lew Crampton, chief executive officer of the South Florida Science Museum. "Guests will have fun learning fascinating facts about chocolate, all while enjoying the fabulous Hoffman's Chocolates."

February, the month of romance, is a likely time for a chocolate fest and the eighth-annual Science of Chocolate event returns to the museum February 9 and 10, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Beyond the usual choco-factoids and choco-history, the museum will cook up some chocolatey treats using - you guessed it - science. Chocolate ice cream will be created using dry ice and liquid nitrogen.

Science of Chocolate event is free with paid museum admission; $11.95 for adults, $8.95 for children 3 to 12, $10.45 for seniors, and free for members. The museum is located at 4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach. Call 561-832-1988, or visit sfsm.org.

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Rebecca McBane is the arts and culture/food editor for New Times Broward-Palm Beach. She began her journalism career at the Sun Sentinel's community newspaper offshoot, Forum Publishing Group, where she worked as the editorial assistant and wrote monthly features as well as the weekly library and literature column, "Shelf Life." After a brief stint bumming around London's East End (for no conceivable reason, according to her poor mother), she returned to real life and South Florida to start at New Times as the editorial assistant in 2009. A native Floridian, Rebecca avoids the sun and beach at all costs and can most often be found in a well-air-conditioned space with the glow of a laptop on her face.

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