OK, it’s not exactly a cheese sandwich with the image of the BVM on in, but as household miracles go, I’m thinking this one is much more useful if less lucrative.  After dinner, I was looking around for a snack, and I found a nice bar of dark chocolate, but it had gone all bloomy.

As per the all-knowing wikipedia, with my emphasis:

Chocolate is very sensitive to temperature and humidity. Ideal storage temperatures are between 15 and 17 °C (59 to 63 °F), with a relative humidity of less than 50%. Chocolate should be stored away from other foods as it can absorb different aromas. Ideally, chocolates are packed or wrapped, and placed in proper storage with the correct humidity and temperature. Additionally chocolate should be stored in a dark place or protected from light by wrapping paper. Various types of “blooming” effects can occur if chocolate is stored or served improperly. If refrigerated or frozen without containment, chocolate can absorb enough moisture to cause a whitish discoloration, the result of fat or sugar crystals rising to the surface. Moving chocolate from one temperature extreme to another, such as from a refrigerator on a hot day can result in an oily texture. Although visually unappealing, these conditions are perfectly safe for consumption.

So I figured I’d suck it up, and I put a couple of pieces on a dish and sat down to do some work.  When I reached over to take a piece, I saw that the chocolates – which had been sitting on my Apple Time Capsule – had miraculously returned to their dark and luscious state!

O. M. G.

Just to make sure I wasn’t losing it, I went and got another piece of the bloomed chocolate and put it on the dish for comparison.  Check it out:

Observe the ugly, waxy, bloomed and blemished chocolate on the left, and a piece of the same bar on the right after mere minutes sitting on the Time Capsule.

Is it the heat from the drive?  The radiation from the WiFi?  Cosmic emanations from Steve J-bs?  I’m not really sure I want to know, I’m just glad my chocolate is back in shape.