HOT SCIENCE

摘要

Tcho, a San Francisco chocolate maker that counts among its staff a former NASA technologist and a cacao expert with a degree in tropical botany, is betting that science will take chocolaty bliss to the next level. The company (pronounced "cho") is distributing portable "flavor labs"-with thermometers, pH sensors, and other equipment-to cacao farmers in Peru so they can experiment with processing and fermentation to create higher-quality beans and command a better price. Meanwhile, at Tcho's California factory, control settings on the chocolate-making equipment can be monitored remotely through an iPhone application.