Essence of chocolate

The chocolate ice cream you savour in the new millennium may get its taste
and smell from chemicals brewed up in a lab. Nowadays chocolate treats are made
from cocoa extracts. But Chris Chen of Universal Flavors Corporation in
Indianapolis, Indiana, has created an intense chocolate flavour by heating a
mixture of certain amino acids, sugars and flavour precursors. His new product
is cheaper than cocoa extract and taste testers rated it as having an intense
chocolate flavour. Chen hopes foods flavoured with his chocolate essence will be
on the market by the end of the year.