There isn't much that could make chocolate more wonderful, but scientists recently discovered a way to give it even more flavor and boost its health properties.

So what's the secret to even better chocolate? According to new research, the answer is simple: storing the cocoa beans before roasting them.

The process of making chocolate begins with the cocoa bean, which is grown in pods on cocoa trees. After being picked, workers open the pods and remove the white or purple cocoa beans. These beans sit in baskets lined with banana leaves for a few days to ferment, followed by time in the sun to dry. The next step, roasting, is what brings out the cocoa flavor.

However, roasting means that some of cocoa's natural antioxidants, or polyphenols, get lost, so researchers started by looking at a way to keep as many of those healthful properties as possible.

"We decided to add a pod-storage step before the beans were even fermented to see whether that would have an effect on the polyphenol content," says Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, Ph.D., from the University of Ghana. "This is not traditionally done, and this is what makes our research fundamentally different."

Researchers took 300 pods and divided them into four groups. Several groups were stored for certain amounts of time, while one group was not stored at all. After storage, each group went through the rest of the process, including fermentation, drying and roasting.

Testing confirmed that pods stored for seven days had more antioxidants after roasting than those in other groups.

However, researchers didn't stop there, they also tested different roasting times at different temperatures. They discovered that a longer roasting time at a lower temperature than traditional roasting methods also increased the cocoa beans' antioxidant properties. Combined with the 7-day roasting period, the result was chocolate that tasted sweeter and had more health benefits.

This team of researchers hope to further their study by next comparing how roasting affects freshly picked cocoa beans and stored cocoa beans. They will also test new temperatures and longer and shorter roasting times to figure out what makes for the best flavor and most antioxidants.

Previous research suggests that chocolate already has numerous health benefits and can do everything from reverse memory loss associated with age to lessening the effects of artery disease. If new storage and roasting techniques can improve upon its health benefits, chocolate is certainly the sweetest thing around that's also good for you.

Photo Credit: Siona Karen | Flickr

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