Exploring Different Chocolate Varieties

Chocolate comes in many forms and varieties. Making them involves a long refining process starting from the cacao beans harvested from the cacao tree to its fermentation, drying, roasting, and grounding, until it forms the base of chocolate-cocoa butter and liquor. Different types have different amounts of cocoa butter and chocolate liquor, some are richer than others. The amount of sugar, lecithin, and vanilla in the mixture also varies. Below are some of the most common varieties.

Cocoa Powder
Cocoa powder is unsweetened chocolate in powder form used for baking and making hot drinks. Part of the cocoa butter is extracted from the liquor to dry it and make it cakey and further pulverized. It comes in natural or alkalized (what is called Dutch-processed) varieties. Natural powder has a strong chocolate flavor and is light brown in color. It is slightly acidic and best to use when cooking with baking soda. Alkalized cocoa powder is less acidic, has a milder taste, and is darker in color. It is best used when cooking with baking powder.

Unsweetened Chocolate
Unsweetened types are also called "baking" or "bitter" chocolate. It consists of pure chocolate liquor and is not meant for eating on its own as it has a very bitter taste. It is used in cooking or baking and is usually combined with sugar to counteract its bitter taste. Unsweetened ones gives cakes and pastries a deep and rich chocolate flavor. It is used as the base for making all other types of chocolate except for the white ones.

Dark Chocolate
Dark types are a combination of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla and the emulsifier lecithin. There are many kinds, varying in its cocoa content and sugar levels. There is sweet - which can contain 30% to 70% cocoa, while extremely dark bars can contain 80% cocoa or more. In principles, bittersweet and semisweet types also falls under this category.

Milk Chocolate
This is a combination of cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, vanilla, sugar, lecithin, and milk. Condensed milk (for most European types) or dry milk solids are used to make this. They can have low cocoa or only needing 10% chocolate liquor to be qualified as milk chocolate. In the United States, they have to contain at least 10% chocolate liquor, 12% milk solids, and 3.39% butterfat. These are also usually sweeter than dark ones, has a lighter color, and has less chocolate taste.

White Chocolate
In some countries, these are not considered chocolate at all because it does not contain any chocolate liquor or any cocoa products. Instead it contains cocoa butter, and commonly, vanilla flavor or other similar flavorings. In the U.S., they should contain at least 14% milk solids, 20% cocoa butter, and a maximum of 55% sugar. These taste more like vanilla or milk instead of chocolate. There are "white chocolate" products that are sold in the market that do not even contain cocoa butter but vegetable fats.