Hi all,

the amount of open chocolate bars in my household is exceeding the
amount of chocolate I can finish ;-), and then there's always a few bars
in reserve.

Summer is approaching, and that means it will be too hot to store them
just anywhere. I keep storing them in the fridge, but I fear that may be
suboptimal. (In any case it takes too long for them to reach optimal
tasting temperature.)

So, how do you store your chocolates?

I've considered a small wine or cigar cooler / humidor. Any better
ideas?


--
http://lars.marowsky-bree.de/disclaimer.html
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/wis.../ref=wl_em_to/

In article >,
Lars Marowsky-Bree > wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> the amount of open chocolate bars in my household is exceeding the
> amount of chocolate I can finish ;-), and then there's always a few bars
> in reserve.
>
> Summer is approaching, and that means it will be too hot to store them
> just anywhere. I keep storing them in the fridge, but I fear that may be
> suboptimal. (In any case it takes too long for them to reach optimal
> tasting temperature.)
>
> So, how do you store your chocolates?
>
> I've considered a small wine or cigar cooler / humidor. Any better
> ideas?

I actually have a very large wine cellar (400+ bottle size) and keep my
chocolate in there -- both the bulk bars for cooking and the smaller
bars. Keeps them at 55F and doesn't take long for them to warm up at
all, if I even want to wait. It simply makes the bars a bit 'crisp' for
breaking. A wine cellar is a good idea.

Tamzen Cannoy wrote:

> I actually have a very large wine cellar (400+ bottle size) and keep my
> chocolate in there -- both the bulk bars for cooking and the smaller
> bars. Keeps them at 55F and doesn't take long for them to warm up at
> all, if I even want to wait. It simply makes the bars a bit 'crisp' for
> breaking. A wine cellar is a good idea.

I do very much the same thing. I keep it in the cellar, the same place
I age meat. No light, 55-60 F, 70% RH. It's a good environment for storage of
chocolate.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

How about just a small ice chest with no ice in it?Occassionallt, at night,
open the chest to get some cool temperature in there.. All u have to do is
keep it below 74 degrees or so.

"Lars Marowsky-Bree" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all,
>
> the amount of open chocolate bars in my household is exceeding the
> amount of chocolate I can finish ;-), and then there's always a few bars
> in reserve.
>
> Summer is approaching, and that means it will be too hot to store them
> just anywhere. I keep storing them in the fridge, but I fear that may be
> suboptimal. (In any case it takes too long for them to reach optimal
> tasting temperature.)
>
> So, how do you store your chocolates?
>
> I've considered a small wine or cigar cooler / humidor. Any better
> ideas?
>
>
> --
> http://lars.marowsky-bree.de/disclaimer.html
> http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/wis.../ref=wl_em_to/

chocolate should avoid humity at all costs. It causes the crystals in
the chocolate to form permanite bonds that will not break..however, a
lot of commercial chocolate bars (such as hersey's) have emulsifiers
that allow chocolate to change temperatures without much of a problem.
The other problem is that it should stay below 86 degrees for milk
chocolate. (The beta crystals in chocolate start to break down at that
temperature.) My suggestion would be to store them in a place that
stays cool and dry but not too cool. Do you have a basement that you
could store them in a box or shelf?