Is Chocolate A Fruit?

According to a recent halachic ruling, perhaps we can finally conclude that chocolate IS indeed a fruit!

Rav Dov Lior gave the somewhat surprising ruling that under certain conditions, you can say the bracha (blessing) of Haetz which is usually reserved for fruit, since it is produced from cocoa beans which grow on trees.

Rav Elkanah Lior (his son) explained that the ruling is based on the Mishna Berura which writes that the ability to say the Haetz bracha does not depend on the retention of the original shape of the fruit as it was on the tree. Rather, it depends on the way that people generally eat the fruit. And, he continues, even if there is no way to crush it, but they did, so long as the essence of the fruit is still recognizable, the bracha does not change. As long as one can recognize what fruit it is derived from, like apple sauce or mashed potatoes, the original bracha is still said. According to this, since the way of eating beans is via chocolate bars, you should say the Haetz bracha.

For those who are unsure, Rav Lior recommends buying chocolate with nuts or almonds or raisins whose bracha is definitely Haetz and you can make the bracha on them and exempt the chocolate.

Important to note is that Rav Lior’s ruling applies to all ‘brown/dark’ chocolate, but ‘white’ chocolate, where it is not obvious that it is derived from the cocoa bean, requires the Shehakol bracha.

So, can we finally conclude that chocolate is a fruit?!

(You can read an article about this in Hebrew here)