3D Chocolate: It's a Reality

How real do you like your chocolate? Should you need to wear special glasses to eat it?

These are questions that stem from a careful reading of the latest news out of one quarter of the United Kingdom, where scientists now say that they can use a 3D printer — that newfangled device that might be the first step on the road to a Star Trek replicator — to make chocolate.

The whole idea of 3D printing is a relatively new one, with machines scarce and people having enough money to buy them even scarcer. The most common uses of the existing 3D printers are the creation (actually recreation) of machine parts and all things plastic.

Onto this template come some researchers from the University of Essex. Instead of printing using ink or plastic or tiny bits of metal or something practical, the 3D printer these researchers are using prints in chocolate. Yep, you can smell it and taste it and everything. (Check out that non-PhotoShopped photo at right, in which you can clearly see the various "layers" of the letters that spell the name of that most glorious of dessert-item foods.)

The researchers swear that the chocolate tastes good. Well, that's all well and good because they are making food, and so it should taste good, especially if they plan to sell it restaurants.

The result will inevitably be a website, at which online shoppers can get some chocolate DIY mojo going and design their own creation, which can be printed out and consumed. In the meantime, you can start thinking about all the great uses for 3D chocolate.