Chocolate Scientist

Chocolate bars are a classic treat: sweet and creamy, with a bit of bitterness. But for Lauren Davis, chocolate bars are a blank canvas, to be transformed from something familiar into something new and surprising.

Davis is a food scientist at the Hershey Company in Pennsylvania. She isn’t shy about why she chose this career, either.
“I became a food scientist because of my love of chocolate,” says Davis. That love is now put to work developing new flavors for Hershey’s Bars, Kit Kats, and more.

Chocolate bars are a classic treat. They are sweet and creamy. They also have a bit of bitterness. But for Lauren Davis, chocolate bars are a blank canvas. She transforms them into something new and surprising.

Davis is a food scientist at the Hershey Company in Pennsylvania. She isn’t shy about why she chose her career. “I became a food scientist because of my love of chocolate,” she says. That love helps her develop new flavors for Hershey’s Bars, Kit Kats, and more.

Every candy bar Davis works on starts with research. She carefully studies trends in tastes and flavors, looking for what is both popular and a good pairing for chocolate. Once she decides on a flavor, she has to break it down into its key components—what makes it taste the way it does. Those components might be purely flavor-related, like the cheesy taste of a cheesecake, or textural, like the cookie crunch of a graham cracker. “A lot of these flavors are sourced from a natural component and concentrated,” says Davis. But some flavors are combinations of various extracts.

Once all the components are decided, Davis gets to work developing the candy bar itself. “In the lab, I’ll work with the different chocolates Hershey has to understand which type of chocolate works best with the flavor we’re trying to develop,” she says. Some flavors pair better with white chocolate, while others need a rich dark chocolate base. Davis has to test different ratios of flavoring to chocolate to make sure it’s the perfect balance. After the base chocolate is perfected, Davis can mix in inclusions—crumbled up cookie, dried fruits, nuts, sprinkles, and other add-ins that make the chocolate bar feel even more like the target flavor.

But whether it’s flavored like a blueberry muffin, cherry cheesecake, or sugar cookie, Davis’s priority is always to make delicious chocolate bars. “We’re really trying to add to the chocolate flavor, not compete with it,” she says. “We still want the chocolate to shine.”

Every candy bar Davis works on starts with research. She carefully studies trends in tastes and flavors. She looks for what is popular and would pair well with chocolate. Once she decides on a flavor, she has to break it down into its key parts, or components. They’re the things that makes the flavor taste the way it does. Those components might relate to flavor, like the cheesy taste of a cheesecake. They could also relate to texture, like the crunch of a graham cracker. “A lot of these flavors are sourced from a natural component and concentrated,” says Davis. Some flavors are combinations of various extracts.

Once Davis decides on the components, she develops the candy bar itself. “In the lab, I’ll work with the different chocolates Hershey has to understand which type of chocolate works best with the flavor we’re trying to develop,” she says. Some flavors are a better match with white chocolate. Others need a rich dark-chocolate base. Davis tests different ratios of flavoring to chocolate. That helps her find the perfect taste. After the base chocolate is done, Davis mixes in add-ins. They’re things like crumbled up cookies, dried fruits, nuts, sprinkles, and more. The add-ins make the chocolate bar feel even more like the target flavor. 

Whether Davis aims for a chocolate bar flavored like a blueberry muffin, a cherry cheesecake, or a sugar cookie, she wants to make it delicious. “We’re really trying to add to the chocolate flavor, not compete with it,” she says. “We still want the chocolate to shine.”