How to keep something at a cool room temperature?

Question

So it's the middle of summer, and I have some high-cacao dark chocolate, the sort that will start to melt if you so much as look at it funny. I don't want it to melt, but the obvious way to get food down below room temperature is to put it in the fridge. But for chocolate, that's not such a good idea.

With temperatures getting up into the 90s, and the ideal temperature to maintain being in the 50-70ish range, how would I maintain it at a cool temperature? (And please don't say "maintain the entire dwelling at a cool temperature by running the A/C 24/7." That's not an acceptable solution.)

Answer 1

Tape it to the refrigerator door: it's below ambient, but not as cool as the inside. Seeing it on the door will remind you to eat it and benefit from all those antioxidants, but keep it out of reach of dogs!

Answer 2

Evaporative cooling would be my first choice. In West Africa, I used to get somewhat-cool water out of an unglazed clay pot I had, just because the water would permeate through the pot and evaporate on the outside, thus cooling the pot and then the water inside.

A method like: putting chocolate in plastic bag, wrapping bag in cloth towel with ends in a bowl of water and then putting the whole thing somewhere it would get enough breeze to continuously evaporate the water should work. I'm sure you could come up with a better method using the same basic technique.

Answer 3

Take a cooler or an insulated lunchbox, put a bag of frozen vegetable of your choice (or lunchbox cooler), wrap it in a cloth (or put a cloth on top of it) and put your chocolate on top of that, then close the lunchbox. It'll be cool but not freezing.

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