Cocoa butter is a key component of chocolate. However, it exhibits complex polymorphism due to its triglyceride composition. From the six crystalline structures cocoa butter can form, only one has the organoleptic, shelf life stability and processing properties confectioners and consumers seek.  

For this reason, chocolate "tempering," a process whereby the desired crystalline structure is encouraged through a series of heating and cooling steps under shear rate, has become part of the standard chocolate manufacturing process. Learn more about tempering. 

Although tempering plays a key role to the product quality, there are also several challenges associated with tempering. First and foremost, tempering requires bespoke equipment that not all confectioners have access to. Second, it requires time and can therefore affect the production rates, both directly (tempering capacity bottleneck) and indirectly (tempered chocolate has higher viscosity and poorly tempered chocolate can take too long to set/demold). Finally, the process is energetically expensive, as it requires shear, heating and cooling, and the ancillary equipment that deliver it (motors, compressors, boilers), thereby complicating decarbonization efforts.  

Conventionally, a different fat that does not require tempering (cocoa butter alternatives) and crystal seeding have been used to eliminate the need for tempering. However, these solutions deliver inferior organoleptic properties and encounter limitations due to regulatory standards, particularly those defining the ingredients that are allowed in chocolate ("standards of identity").