The effect of cocoa on the melting time of Lindt chocolate

Aim
The purpose of the experiment was: to determine if cocoa concentration affects the melting
time of chocolate.
Prediction
Cocoa concentration has no effect on the melting time of chocolate.
Variables
Independent: percentage of cocoa
Dependent: chocolate melting time
Controlled: heating level of stove plate, water bath level, brand of chocolate, size of
chocolate pieces, timing device
Experimental Materials
-6 equally-sized slabs each of 70 %, 85%, 90 %, and 99% of cocoa Lindt chocolate
-1 hot plate
-1 steel pot
-1 small steel container
-2 stopwatches
-Sharp knife
-toothpicks
-Aluminium foil paper
-Indelible marker
Procedure
1. Mark the inside of the pot halfway using the indelible marker.
2. Switch on stove to level 6 and place aluminium pot on it.
3. Prepare a water bath by boiling water in a kettle and filling the pot up to the mark.
4. Cut the chocolate into equally sized pieces for each cocoa concentration.
5. Line the smaller container with aluminium foil.
6. Place the lined container in the boiling water bath and immediately start a stopwatch.
7. After exactly two minutes, place a randomly selected chocolate slab of known cocoa
concentration in the foil.
8. Begin timing with the other stopwatch.
9. Poke chocolate roughly every 30 seconds with a toothpick to see if it has fully melted
(melted = runny consistency of chocolate with no solid pieces).
10. Stop the stopwatch when chocolate is melted. Record this time in seconds.
11. Dispose of the aluminium foil containing melted chocolate.
12. Remove the smaller steel container and cool it under running cold tap water.

13. Repeat the above procedures for the remaining pieces of chocolate, getting a total of six
replicates for each cocoa concentration while maintaining the water bath at the set level.
Assumptions
Time recorded was that of melting the chocolate only as the lined small container was
preheated during the 2 minutes.
Each chocolate piece was of the same mass.
The stove plate had the same heating rate throughout the experiment.
Chocolate did not melt at room temperature.
Smaller container was cooled to the same extent for each repeat.
Table 1: Chocolate melting time (seconds)
Factor
level

Observations
3
4

70%

162

173

190

187

141

125

85%

201

162

149

183

121

133

90%

156

210

134

145

118

117

99%

157

180

158

197

173

173

Parameters
ya.
a.
163.0
978
0
158.1
949
7
146.6
880
7
173.0
1038
0

y..

3845

Results
Hypothesis Test
H0: 1 = 2 = 3 = 4 = 0
H1: i 0 for at least one i
where i represents the difference in the mean melting time for each cocoa concentration
from the overall mean of the data.
Table 2: ANOVA for the melting time data
Source of
Variation
Cocoa
Concentratio
n
Error
Total

Sum of
Squares

2153.79
14968.1
7
17121.9
6

Degree
s of
Freedo
m

Mean
Square

717.93

20

748.41

23

F0

0.96

P-value

0.43

0.05

Data Analysis
The F0 test statistic computed was 0.96, which is less than 1. This implies that the mean
squared treatments is less than the mean squared error. Hence the values are not significant
and we fail to reject the null hypothesis.
The results could have been affected by the following sources of error.
Errors:
-Temperature consistency of the Stove Plate
- Overheating of pot and container
-mass of chocolate pieces varied
-Consistency of water bath level due to evaporation
-Reaction time whilst starting and stopping the watch

Conclusion
With the results of the data, a higher percentage of cacao slows the melting rate of chocolate,
supporting our hypothesis. This is seen with the White chocolate control which had a faster
melting rate than the 85% cacao chocolate. However, the chocolate that had a higher
percentage of cacao also had a lower percentage of fat, which could have affected our data.
Recommendations
The experiment can be improved in the following ways:
-Accurate and constant temperature measurement of water bath by using a thermometer
-Uniform chocolate mass by using scale
-Use of viscosity sensor to standardise melting point
-Increase number of trials