Left Over Christmas Candy Science Experiments - Part 2, Seizing the Chocolate

When melted chocolate, like say a few of those chocolate coins from the children's stockings stuck in the microwave for 30 seconds and stirred (or melted on top of a heat pad, if you prefer)...


...comes into contact with water, even a little water, like a single drop from a clean straw, it seizes, or clumps up...


...just like sugar on the back of a wet spoon. It happens for pretty much the same reason, too. Although melted chocolate is in a liquid state, it doesn't contain water (I'm not actually sure about the chocolate coins, but pure chocolate doesn't have liquid in it), so the solid bits floating in the fat are drawn to the water, causing the entire batch to clump up (or something like that).


Of course, if you dip the sugar clumped spoon into your tea, the sugar will dissolve just like normal. The same is also true for the chocolate. You can't melt it back to normal, but you can "save" it, by mixing it into a liquid, such as warm milk. The rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon of liquid for every ounce of seized chocolate.

In our case, we found with a little stirring, 3/4 cup of milk was just about right for turning 5 or 6 coins worth of seized chocolate...


...into something pretty good to drink.


It's great to be a homeschooler.