Conching chocolate as a protoypical example of poweder incorporation*

The mixing of a powder of 10- to 50-μm primary particles into a liquid to form a dispersion with the highest possible solid content is a common industrial operation. Building on recent advances in the rheology of such “granular dispersions,” we study a paradigmatic example of such powder incorporation: the conching of chocolate, in which a homogeneous, flowing suspen- sion is prepared from an inhomogeneous mixture of particulates, triglyceride oil, and dispersants. Studying the rheology of a simplified formulation, we find that the input of mechanical energy and staged addition of surfactants combine to effect a consid- erable shift in the jamming volume fraction of the system, thus increasing the maximum flowable solid content. We discuss the possible microscopic origins of this shift, and suggest that choco- late conching exemplifies a ubiquitous class of powder–liquid mixing.