Tasty Credits

University of California at Berkeley students with a sweet tooth are in luck. In a unique course taught there for the past three years by Dr John West, chocolate is the focus of a semester of intensive study.

But it's not a piece of cake [Students are] expected to learn a lot of the material and to be responsible for some of the techniques and technology that goes into chocolate production," West says.

In addition the course covers in detail the agricultural and pathological aspects of the cocoa species, the complicated processing of the beans for marketing and the international chocolate market.

Students also take a tour of a local Hershey plant and conduct blind taste testing sessions in class to distinguish the differences in various types of chocolate.

"How could you resist?" asked Jonathan Harris, a senior majoring in economics. --The Datly Californian