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I am conflicted when I see a box of chocolates. I like chocolate well enough, but the guts of certain of those chocolate covered miscellaneous don't really appeal to me.
I know there are some such assortments with maps. That's baked. I think I remember an idea around here about some sort of chocolate
x-ray device but that's halfbaked and twicecomplicated. A small window would suffice.
Each chocolate would be made with a transparent viewport of clear gelatin or sugar so the contents could be viewed.
Potential issues:
-The viewport wouldn't have the same mouth feel or flavor as the chocolate
-Difficult for the viewport to remain unobstructed by chocolate in the manufacturing process. (Tiny little heated squeegee thingy included in each box?)
[link]
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You forgot about the small lamp and battery made of some special light emitting sugar gelatin stuff to illuminate the interior of the chocolate. Nougaglow. |
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Perhaps a gauge built of sugar-gelatin (sugela?) set into the base of each chocolate that points to the appropriate spot on its chocolate-center-spectrum-indicator scale recticule. |
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Or, a small strip of absorbent paper embedded into the chocolate center through the base of the chocolate that, when you pull it out, has remnants of the filling on it. You can taste the paper strip and see if you want to eat the chocolate. Maybe equip each chocolate with two strips so that the leftovers from the first culling can be sampled by the next chocolate eater. |
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Or, maybe, just maybe, the plastic tray in which the chocolates are arrayed within the box has spikes upon which the chocolates are placed during the packaging. The spikes, in turn, have a cluster of smaller spikes that retain some of the filling on them when you pull the chocolate out. Then you can visually examine the stuff left on the spike. |
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A spikes-in-the-tray variant could have the spikes made of image-conduit grade fiber optic material such that you flip the box over and peer through the special per-chocolate viewing ports into the interior of each chocolate, via the image-conduit spikes. |
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Then there's always the possibility of constructing a small chocolate guillotine-like thing that allows you to cleanly slice the base layer off, intact, of the bottom of the specimen chocolate. If you don't like what you see, a small jig is provided, attached to the base of the chocolate guillotine-like thing, that allows you to precisely align and re-attach the base layer, perhaps with a dab of special-purpose chocolate base re-attachment glue (Suglua?) |
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Of course, there's always the chocolate needle-biopsy kit approach . . . . |
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have the inside on the outside and the chocolate on the inside. |
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[bristolz], haw! but you left out candy MRI and GPS. |
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I wonder if it's possible to produce transparent chocolate. |
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Plus, once you go black, you never go back. |
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One of my mostest favoritest things about the 'bakery is reading the annotations when [bristolz] gets on a roll like that. |
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//have the inside on the outside and the chocolate on the inside.//
Three words:
Liquid
Cerry
Center |
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well that one will have to be in a bottle! |
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mmmm needle biopsy ,,, yummm |
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Ha, two of my favorite things, Chocolate and sharp pointed objects |
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I envisage a small version of one
of those drilling rigs which are
used to take ice core samples from
Arctic ice sheets. |
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My mother had the habit of eating chocolates with a knife. Cutting each one in half left little doubt as to what was inside, and made it easier to share the choice ones between two noisy little boys. |
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OK <begins speaking in a slow, monotonous tone as if hypnotized> Why don't we use piezo crystals to heat the chocolate covering to briefly reveal the contents then reseal it shut if it's not our favourite filling? Or else we could that require all chocolates must be filled with custard <snaps out of it> Happy now? |
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half, just do what my sister does - nibble a bit off the bottom of each one and put back those you don't like, then express surprise at the shoddy workmanship when someone else picks a pre-sampled chocolate from the box. (I can hear bliss typing "Ick" right this minute) |
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The more I think about this transparent chocolate thing, the more I am intrigued. I'm imagining something with the similar physical texture as regular chocolate, but with a translucent, colourless appearance. It would be like looking through frosted glass. As long as the layer was fairly thin, the colour of the center could be visible. |
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Chances are it would have a different flavour. Much like dark, milk, and white chocolate have different tastes and textures, so would 'clear' chocolate. |
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I dont' know much about the chocolate manufacturing process, but I do know there are cocoa solids involved, and cocoa butter of course. These would appear to be the main problematic areas when trying to achieve transparency. The rest of the process is mostly sugar based, so that should present less of a problem. I just have an idea that if someone with enough knowledge of the subject put their mind to this, it might be possible. |
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There are, presumably, artificial chocolate flavorings that might be transparent. Not sure about acheiving the texture. Can fats be rendered transparent and still be solid at room temperature? |
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Not sure. Probably not, but there may be some sort of substitute that might achieve the purpose. |
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I wouldn't be surprised if research has been done on this. If not clear... then certainly different colour chocolate. These days, with the advent of green and purple ketchup, and chocolate and raspberry flavoured french fries, I'd think that confectioners would see a new market for coloured and clear chocolate products. Just imagine the kids going silly for "new BLUE Kit Kat!" and "Crystal Snickers". |
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Now that I think about it, colours would be simple to do by starting with white chocolate and adding dyes. |
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A transparent "Aero" bar would be very cool looking. |
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The basic components of chocolate are cocoa, cocoa butter, and sugar. White chocolate is not technically chocolate because it has no cocoa, only the cocoa butter and sugar. Cocoa butter (and all solid fats) tend to be opaque, due to many small crystals forming (fats are bulky and flexible enough that achieving one large crystal is impossible). So transparent chocolate probably won't be happening any time soon. (I'm a cook, chemist, chocolate lover, and geek, in case you hadn't noticed) |
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You could just do what I do, and memorize the flavors of your favorite brand (like the little squares are caramel, the dark round ones with stripes are raspberry, the egg-shaped dark ones with white stripes are lemon...). It really surprises people when I can identify the caramels, truffles, chews, etc. in a box of See's. |
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i got it... in blockbuster movies and not so blockbuster movies, heros and stuntmen jump through 'glass' and dont get hurt. this 'glass' is spun sugar, so maybe the technology could be applies to tiny sugar 'glass' windows, which can then be affixed to the top of the choclate, or the side so that the decorated top is still there. |
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This would turn out crunchy and ruin the texture of the chocolate. |
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make it removable, kinda beats the whole object of the point though.... |
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spun sugar melts fairly easily, so
just lick that part first and then
leisurely enjoy your creamy,
dreamy chocolate. |
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Make chocolates without the top. Have a section of just tops on the side, and have the user complete their chocolate themselves. |
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