Wine, Roses, and Chocolate: How Romance and Science Sweeten February

We all want our days (and nights) to be filled with wine, roses, and chocolate, evoking feelings of enjoyment and happiness, but there is a fair amount of science behind all that romance. Fermentation and distillation processes are critical to chocolate, rose oil, and wine, and centuries of science and craft have gone into their manufacture.

How do 60,000 roses become an ounce of rose oil, or a handful of cacao beans become a Hershey bar? And, more to the point, what are the molecules that make them so appealing to us all?

Join master flavorist Sam Tharpe, essential oil specialist Kim Bleimann, and chemist of wine André Isaacs as they uncover the unseen molecular world of these favorites and the science that delivers them. Also joining us will be Shane Confectionery with delicious artisan chocolates and Venus Invictus vending their alluring perfumes throughout the evening.

Featured image: "The Unsolved Secret of the Rose," advertisement for Dow Aromatics Division, 1942

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Host or Publisher Science History Institute