We thought that activated charcoal was out again, but now an English restaurant chain is surprising us with black croissants. We want them to taste better than they look.
You look burned, no question about it. The deep black look is not a fault of the back ends, it is intentional. Because the croissants in the photo have a very specific ingredient: activated charcoal. The English restaurant chain Coco Di Mama, which is known for Italian fast food, offers the black croissants. And of course they should be able to do more than just look very scary: thanks to the activated charcoal, the croissant helps with detoxing, cleanses the body of toxins and neutralizes excess stomach acid.
In plain language: These poisonous-looking pastries are a vegan hangover snack. But the croissant is not celebrated, but rather fooled about. Many people grab their heads, especially on social media. "That's a little too much even for East London," writes Twitter user Amy Charlotte Kean. "I played mouse at the product development meeting: 'Ok, who burned that vegan croissant?' 'It's not burned, it has activated charcoal in it …' "Matt Rogan says from the soul of many.
Of course, you can see the black croissants as an attempt by Coco di Mama to get into the spotlight a bit. We live in the age of millennial food. This is food that is often extremely extreme just to gain internet fame. For the viral moment, restaurants, cafés and bars come up with crazy creations, but many people are slowly getting tired of them. Let's be honest: Even a 20-year-old Twitter boy just wants good food and nothing from Frankenstein's kitchen that looks very good in a photo.
Well, the black croissant is not incredibly photogenic, but with the trendy ingredient activated charcoal it wants to stand out. It might not be so clever to bring this substance to people, after all, it is an active ingredient that is actually only available in pharmacies. And for good reason, because the activated charcoal binds water in the body, attracts pollutants in the body and helps detoxify. But activated charcoal can also remove important substances from the body and can therefore collide with the effects of drugs.
This was also evident in the case of a viral food: in 2016 black smoothies spread on social media. It was discussed whether activated charcoal might not affect the effectiveness of the birth control pill. And there are certainly voices who say that when you take activated charcoal you should use a second contraceptive. Of course, you don't know how much activated charcoal there is in the croissants, but the pastries may not be that harmless after all.
