Chocolatier Pierre Marcolini's seasonal collection includes a very creative 5-pointed holiday star, where each point features a different flavor of ganache filling. Even better, each of the points is split into a milk and dark chocolate section, so in that one item, you get ten different chocolate experiences.
More intriguing, however, is Marcolini's chocolate molecule. Set on a tablet of dark chocolate, the chocolate molecule is represented with chocolate "ions" in a total of four flavors. The White Ion is white chocolate filled with a Moroccan spice-infused milk chocolate center. The Gold Ion features a caramel, roasted pineapple and praline center coated in dark chocolate and accented with gold. The Brown Ion is dark chocolate with a dark chocolate and caramel canter. The Bronze Ion has a gingerbread-spiced ganache coated in milk chocolate. At $80 for each molecule, this is not an inexpensive indulgence, but it is significantly larger than a real molecule and clearly an ideal gift for someone interested in the sciences.

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12-23-2006 @7:50AM Berkana said... Please don't abuse the term "ion"; in every instance of the the word "ion" in the above entry, you mean "atom". There are enough nuts out there who can't even tell me what an 'ion' is who are trying to sell me things that somehow put "ions" into the air for my health. Shame on them. Don't be part of the problem. (The bonds in the above molecule are covalent, not ionic, so the atoms in the molecule are not "ions".)
(And yes, I'm interested in the sciences, which is why I'm offering this point of correction.)
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12-23-2006 @7:52AM Nicole Weston said... Thanks for the correction, Berkana. The only reason I used the word "ion" is that the chocolatier did and I wanted to make sure I didn't misrepresent his intentions with the chocolate. I'll leave it as it is in the post - but any science students reading this should pay attention to the comments, not to a chocolatier's description of a molecule made of truffles. =)
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12-23-2006 @7:53AM chris said... Lighten up, Francis, she took "ion" straight from the catalog entry; she didn't name the thing. Good on you for being so smart though.
Thanks for the looksee Nicole, love seeing chocolate in any eclectic form.
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12-23-2006 @1:46PM jess said... I was also troubled by the use of the word ion.
Although it may seem like semantics, I'm sure that people in other fields get upset by misuse of terms as well. If I start confusing ramekins with casseroles, or Grand Marnier with Triple Sec you'd correct me quickly; so when I see ions and atoms confused, I try to explain the difference.
I also looked at the catalog and was annoyed to see the source of the error was the company. I guess ion sounded cooler to them. Atom just doesn't have the exalted social cachet these days.
It is frustrating being a scientist. I read articles in newspapers and see items on the news on television that are completely inaccurate. Science reporting is almost uniformly awful. It makes me wonder how bad journalism is when dealing with other fields.
People seem to be afraid of learning anything about science and if you do stop to try to explain something, all you hear are disclaimers: "I'm awful at science," "I can't understand math," and so on. A bunch of people who can stand around discussing cooking, car repair, or politics can understand some basic ideas in science. They just have to get over their phobias and let themselves listen.
Ok, enough of the ranting, time to go to lab and get some work done!
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