I’ve been campaigning for decades to convince people that not all microbes are bad. Some are quite wonderful. The best arguments for this are a few of my favorite things: cheese, bread, wine, yogurt. The message has gotten through (I’m not the only science writer who keeps beating this drum). But now I’ve found another entry for the list: chocolate.

Have you ever noticed that different types and brands of chocolate taste different from each other? And to a lesser degree, different batches from the same brand? One may be a little more fruity, another a bit more dusty, still another has just a hint of caramel. If it sounds like I’m describing wine, there’s a reason for that. Like wine, much of the flavor in fine chocolate comes from fermentation.

The microbes that give your favorite chocolate its wonderful taste are the little critters that live naturally in the soil where the cocoa beans are grown. From there, different combinations of microbes develop, and the composition of these microbial communities depends on how the beans were processed — the temperature, timing, and so on. That’s why there’s so much difference between types of chocolate.

So the next time you indulge in a piece of chocolate, take a minute (after your chocolate, of course) to thank the little guys who made that delightful experience possible.

’til next time,

Avery