No, it's not what you think. As health concerns increase about calorie intake, and the world wide economic melt-down proceeds at a rapid pace, chocolatiers have noticed that chocolate consumption in the eight largest Western European countries has declined by two percent, and in the U. S., chocolate consumption has dropped 8%.

Clearly, drastic measures are called for.

Barry Callebaut, a Zurich-based company that is the world's largest chocolate manufacturer, has pulled out all the research stops, to create Vulcano. They've solved two of the traditional issues with chocolate; it melts when it's warm, and all that chocolaty goodness comes at a high caloric price. Callebaut's new chocolate survives temperatures up to 131 degrees Farenheit, and, say its creators, Volcano has as much as 90% fewer calories than other chocolate. Those two characteristics make it possible for the chocolatier to look at regaining lost addicts customers and expanding to regions where shipping chocolate without it melting before it arrives (like China and India) has been problematic and costly.

The chocolate has a slightly crisp, crunchy texture, caused by the many tiny air bubbles that, lava-like, inspired the name. You can see the bubbles in the image above. The chocolate does melt when consumed; it reacts to enzymes in human saliva. Currently, Callebaut plans to produce Vulcano chocolate in both a bar form and a cookie. Callebaut has already produced Vulcano bars in dark, milk, white and fruit varieties. Callebaut expects that Vulcano will primarily be used in fillings for other chocolate bars, cookies, and other confections. They've conducted taste-tests and are convinced they have a winner—and they emphasize that the chocolate is all-natural.

What's particularly interesting, from an American point of view, is that while Callebaut produces and sells chocolates under their own name, they are very large scale producers for other companies—like Hershey's and Cadbury and Nestlé. If they have managed to make a resistant to melting chocolate, it has enormous potential for new business, and for use by military organizations; the United States has been trying to make an easy-to-eat melt-resistant and tasty chocolate for years, with limited success. If Callebaut can do that, and produce a chocolate that's sharply lower in calories, it could do very very well. Think about lower calorie cookies, that won't melt in your hands, for instance. I don't think that Vulcano will endanger current manufacturers of chocolate or their sales, but I do think it will expand current possibilities.

You can read more here.