You’d expect a chocolate teapot to be completely useless (except for devouring), but believe it or not, this one actually works. Engineered by Nestlé Master Chocolatier John Costello, this fully functional chocolate teapot is meant for brewing tea. It works exactly like a regular teapot – it won’t melt and the tea comes out tasting a bit like chocolate.
Costello and his colleagues decided to make the pot after they were challenged by a BBC TV series called The One Show. They had to prove that the statement ‘there’s nothing more useless than a chocolate teapot’ was false. And they managed to do just that.
So how exactly do you go about making a heat-resistant chocolate teapot? Well, it all depends on the type of chocolate you choose. Costello and his team opted for dark chocolate with 65 percent cocoa solids, because its low fat content would make it more resistant to heat.
Photo: Nestle UK
Once they had the raw material ready, the team conducted a series of experiments to determine the right thickness for the chocolate layer forming the pot. They spent about six weeks planning and experimenting with various shapes and various types of chocolate, before they hit upon the perfect formula.
“We need to work out at what point the thickness of the chocolate will retain the heat from the water,” Costello explained. They started off with a balloon experiment, where they dipped a small balloon into some pre-prepared chocolate and allowed it to dry.
The dipping process was repeated several times, until it gave them an idea of how many layers are required for the chocolate pot to withstand hot water. “If you get the right thickness of chocolate, what happens is that the water temperature cools down slightly, and then retains the heat inside so it doesn’t leak, doesn’t melt,” said Costello.
Another challenge the team faced was deciding the size of the hole at the top of the teapot. A small hole would result in more trapped steam, so they made it bigger than that of a regular teapot.
Next, they created a teapot mold by casting an actual teapot in silicone, and then filled it up with melted chocolate. They shook the mold to get rid of air bubbles and tipped out the excess chocolate. Once again, they repeated the process until they reached the desired number of layers.
When the chocolate was set, they removed it carefully from the mold, and pierced a hole through the spout. Costello said that the process of making the chocolate teapot from start to finish takes about two-and-a-half hours. He also revealed that when they first used the chocolate teapot, they were expecting more of a chocolate concoction than real tea. But that wasn’t the case at all.
“You need to pour the water in a certain way and avoid stirring it,” he said. “Let it brew like you would a normal cup of tea and just let it stand for a while, and the chocolate on the inside of the shell melts but doesn’t move anywhere. So you get a very, very small amount of residue coming up to the top.”
When the teapot was put to the test, it brewed a perfect cup of tea. The representative from The One Show was actually pleasantly surprised. “It’s tea!” he exclaimed. “It’s a little bit sweet, there’s a little bit chocolate going on, sort of a hint of chocolate. It’s quite nice, I actually like it with a bit of chocolate. Perfect!”
“You can make a teapot out of chocolate,” he finally conceded.