Mangos Could Soon Be Used To Make Chocolate And You Won't Even Notice

I have good news and bad news.

I'll start with the bad news: Cocoa production has declined because of crop failures and environmental issues. This is making cocoa butter, one of the most important ingredients in chocolate, very expensive.

The good news? Scientists have been conducting some yummy experiments to figure out how to make chocolate without using a lot of cocoa butter.

So far, it looks like the lucky substitute will be mango butter.

Mango butter on its own sounds quite delicious, but according to researchers, only a very small amount of it is needed as a replacement.

That means your chocolate will not be tasting like mangos, by any means. Also, by the time mango chocolate makes it to your mouth, any mango flavor will be refined out.

But there's a better reason that we're stoked about this.

Mango butter will actually work better in chocolate because it has a higher moisture content, which will help produce chocolate that's lower in fat. And we are all about eating chocolate with a lower risk of heart disease, obesity, stroke and other health issues tied to eating too much of the bad types of fat.

Using mango butter instead of cocoa butter will also make chocolate lower in calories. Bring it on, science!

OK, so the switch to mango butter isn't happening just yet, but it's looking like this will indeed be the future of chocolate.

Ultimately, it's up to the major chocolate manufacturers to decide whether or not they'll use mango butter. But why wouldn't they use it if mango butter will be cheaper?

For now, we'll just have to keep chowing down on the regular stuff.

Citations: This Fruit Butter Has All the Taste of Chocolate But Fewer Calories (Shape)