50 Things to Know About Chocolate

I’ll admit: I approached this as a casual chocolate fan and left feeling like I’d just aced a cocoa crash course. McCoy’s narration is the star here—his voice has this warm, slightly gravelly quality that makes even the driest facts (like the chemistry of conching) feel engaging. The production is clean, with no distracting edits, though I did wish for *slightly* more emphasis on the historical deep dives (the Mayan rituals section deserved more dramatic pause). The structure is where this audiobook shines and stumbles. The 50 “things” are grouped thematically, but some transitions feel abrupt—jumping from child labor in cocoa farms to the invention of the chocolate chip in the same breath can be jarring. That said, the weird trivia (did you know Napoleon carried chocolate into battle?) and myth-busting (white chocolate *is* technically chocolate, fight me) make it worth the occasional whiplash. At 92 minutes, it’s the rare food audiobook that respects your time while still leaving you smarter. Just don’t listen on an empty stomach—you *will* raid the pantry afterward.