A MYTH-busting quest to create a working chocolate teapot has been successful after York chocolatiers and scientists joined forces for the challenge.

Science TV presenter Marty Jopson from BBC1’s The One Show, has a love of inventions - and next on his list was to attempt to disprove the familiar expression “useless as a chocolate teapot.”

The challenge was to develop a teapot that could withstand boiling water long enough to let the tea brew for two minutes before pouring.

Mr Jopson went to master chocolatiers John Costello and Jan Kuendiger at Nestle Product Technology Centre (PTC) in York to find out what it would take to make a working chocolate teapot – and after weeks of planning, complex equations and numerous trips back to the drawing board, the result has been unveiled.

Mr Costello enlisted some of the PTC’s top scientists and engineers to help in its development and solved the problem after a range of experiments.

He said they found that the secret was to use dark chocolate with 65 per cent chocolate solids, due to its fat content, and build up a series of layers using a silicon mould. The whole process took around two-and-a-half hours.

“What we found is that when we first started to look at it, we’d probably end up with chocolate tea,” Mr Costello said.

“Interestingly, if you pour the water in a certain way and you don’t stir inside, and you just let it settle, and let it brew like you would normally brew a cup of tea, and just let it stand for a little while – when you pour it, what happens is that the chocolate on the inside of the shell melts but doesn’t move anywhere.

“It stays where it is. So you get a very, very small amount of residue coming up to the top.”

Tasting the final result, the team concluded it was a lovely cup of tea with a slight hint of chocolate.

The ingredients in chocolate determine its heat resistance and melting point, so the science of the treat fascinates product designers because of the way they can influence taste and texture.

The melting point is typically just above 36°C so it melts in the mouth: if the melting point is very high, the mixture will feel waxy; if it is too low, it does not store well and separates.

The PTC in York is Nestle’s global centre for confectionery research and development and has 185 staff.