put in the freezer and isn't ready to be rolled into truffles,

we'll have to finish it. So that's what we're trying to do right

now. I'm Jayson Lynch the current President for the

Laboratory for Chocolate Science. Here we are in our office.

Behind me are 600 pounds of chocolate that we just

ordered from Guittard. We use this chocolate to run almost

all of our events. From chocolate tastings to finals hot

chocolate; truffle making classes. We're an MIT student

We're a group of chocolate enthusiasts. We love to eat

chocolate, experiment with chocolate, learn about the

science, history and politics of chocolate. Everyone who

cares about chocolate finds their way here for one reason

or another. So LCS was actually an accident. I found this

random place online that was willing to sell me 50 pounds of

chocolate for $1.50 a pound and I didn't have any idea what

I would do with it but I couldn't really pass up that sort of

deal so I purchased 50 pounds of chocolate, showed up at

Senior House and said, "What am I going to do with it?"

So I invited all of my friends over, got a couple gallons of

cream and said to bring whatever is in your pantries;

alcohol and extracts and spices etc.. We got 50 pounds of

chocolate who cares if we mess up, we'll try it and see what

happens, and it was fun. So that was the truffle party. And it

was so much fun that we did it again a couple months later,

and the third time that we did this I started having random

people coming up to me in my dorm saying, "I don't know

you but this looks like fun, can I come?" And I said, "Sure,"

and then somebody said, "Why isn't this a club?" and I said,

"That's a good question, I'll go fill out some paperwork."

And that's how LCS actually got started. So that's the first

one going in and then we're going to work on the second

batch. Perfect. A lot of people find cooking a little scary,

chocolate a little scary, high-end chocolate things like

truffles they seem very imposing they are things you pay

a lot of money for and you get the classic set of flavors.

So part of the point of LCS is to break down that wall of

imposing ooooh culinary, high end excitement and turn it

into something that was approachable to students; that

people could try out and basically make their own.

OK I'm making one with wasabi, garlic powder and banana

extract. Cinnamon and red pepper flakes. Bacon and

allspice. Love of chocolate really cuts across a lot of other

interests. So you have a lot of different majors and really

people from all kinds of backgrounds who come and they

like doing chocolate. And it's been really nice to have that

kind of cross-connection. There are people here who are

interested in the science of chocolate, the economics of

chocolate; all sorts different things. Our former President

Anna Walden Brown, spent two summers in Ecuador

studying the impact of the chocolate industry on the soil

conditions there. Another one of our members was more

interested in the economics of chocolate and spent some

time studying the world trade in chocolate and how that

impacted international markets. Probably the thing that has

caused me most to go, "Oh my gosh I started something

and it actually matters to people." I was talking to somebody

about six months ago who said he was talking to an

undergrad the other day and discovered that now a sign

that you're a real MIT graduate is that you know how to

make truffles. Who would have thought of that ten years

ago. It's cool, it's a life skill and it's tasty.

You want to put some sprinkles on this one? Sure.

I'll admit I never expected it to still be here ten years later.

It was kind of a joke at the time, even our constitution is

humorous. We have a non-discrimination clause in it: We're

not allowed to discriminate based on a preference for dark,

milk, or white chocolate. And that was about the attitude I

had going in and creating this club, is that this is here,

because what the heck, it'll be a fun thing for a couple of

terms. And it's still going because the people who've joined

and the people who've taken it. The whole point of this club

is just to give you the confidence to go do cool things.