Chocolate heaven

Food for thought

Andreas will bring chocolate bars made by Danish chef Thorsten Schmidt to the Space Station. Andreas contacted Thorsten to make something that would boost his energy on long days.

The astronaut-chef duo has already worked together on Andreas’s first mission, ‘iriss’, where Thorsten concocted a full meal that Andreas shared with his crewmates, including chocolates resembling space rocks.

A new kind of chocolate bar

Thorsten is known for being a chef who searches for innovative ways to experience food, so for Andreas’s next mission, set to launch in August, Thorsten got to work on something healthy and delicious.

Thorsten challenged himself to add as many natural ingredients as possible into the chocolate without ruining texture and flavour. After thousands of hours of work, the result is a new kind of chocolate bar he calls SPACECRAFTED. Besides containing dark chocolate, it also contains more than 70 natural ingredients, from kale and seaweed to lactic acid bacteria and magnesium.

To ensure that the chocolate would help Andreas during the long days in space and increase his energy levels, Thorsten turned to Lisbeth Ankersen, a food chemist with over two decades of experience in food development. They asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the golden stamp of approval when it comes to claims about food and health, on what health advantages the ingredients gave.

The bar has been independently verified by EFSA, which approved the following advantages: The vitamin B5 in the bars reduce tiredness and fatigue, and the iron, selenium, zinc, and vitamins C and D boost the immune system. The vitamin B and C content also supports the function of the nervous system, another focus for the creators of the chocolate bar.

Linking stomach and brain

Thorsten and Lisbeth wanted to focus on the vagus nerve that connects the brain with the heart, lungs, and the gut. This nerve sends sensory information from the stomach to the brain, signalling that it is full and influencing the eating behaviour, while also playing a role in how flavour is perceived.

This connection between gut and brain also plays a role in the mood and emotional well-being. The microbiome in the stomach, hormone signalling, and stress can contribute to how a person feels.

They used ingredients that would support the nervous system and created chocolate that did not cause any bloat or a heavy feeling, but a pleasant and fulfilling sensation.

Get your own bars

Andreas will bring 75 bars to the Space Station, so there should be enough to share with his crewmates, while keeping some for the long days in the “office”.

Here on Earth, ESA has partnered with Thorsten and will have the SPACECRAFTED bars available on the spacecrafted.eu website. There will be three flavours to try when the page launches in mid-August 2023.

• Dark Star, with a hint of dark spices,
• Red Star, with cherry, cinnamon, and ginger notes,
• Blue Planet, with a taste of blueberry and pepper.

More flavours will be launched on Earth during the Huginn mission.