Nowadays, it has become routine for you to make sure when selecting chocolate that you pay attention to the percentage of cocoa on it. Are you upset when you see 55%, 60%, 70%, 80% of cocoa on the packaging?
Do you know what that really means? Is a chocolate bar better at 75% or at 80% better?
What the following labels mean:
Chocolates contain several essential ingredients that vary from type to type. The main elements of chocolate are cocoa mass, sugar or sugar substitute, milk or milk fat, natural vanilla, and soy lecithin. In addition to a variety of flavors, chocolate additives and spices are categorized by percentage of cocoa mass and sugar by:
Unsweetened or bitter chocolates
These are actually black chocolates whose main ingredients are cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, and spices. This category includes cooking chocolates, provided that the sugar-containing sugar contains 85% of the cocoa mass, while the unsweetened contains 95% of the cocoa mass. Unfortunately, this is not the situation in our market.
Bitter-sweet
This category also includes black chocolates that must contain a minimum of 35% cocoa mass. There is a big difference in flavors in this category, so chocolate with a cocoa content of between 35% and 84% can be found. With this type of chocolate, it should be emphasized that a higher percentage of cocoa parts indicates a lower rate of sugar.
Semi-sweet and sweet
A common feature of all black chocolates is that they must contain a minimum of 15% cocoa mass. Here, too, there is a wide range of chocolates both in taste and quality. In particular, chocolates that are considered semi-sweet or sweet should contain a minimum of 15% cocoa mass. Due to such a low percentage of cocoa mass, manufacturers are left with a lot of space to add sugar, which black chocolate lovers do not like.
Milk chocolates
We have dedicated a particular text to these chocolates, so we will only provide a few pieces of information here. Milk chocolate flavors are associated with the type of milk or milk fat used in its production. Also the amount and taste of the cocoa mass is important fact. Milk softens or masks the taste of chocolate, which makes this type of chocolate almost ideal for manipulation. This is why overcooked and less quality cocoa beans can be used. However, we emphasize that when you try a beautifully made milk chocolate, created from fine cocoa beans, it is impossible not to feel the difference. Milk chocolate should contain a minimum of 10% chocolate mass, and not less than 3.39% milk fat… Today there are so-called. Dark milk chocolates that contain a higher percentage of cocoa.
And before we get to that part dedicated to percentages, we’ll assign a few sentences to white chocolate lovers as well. These types of chocolates do not contain cocoa powder. They contain cocoa butter, so the actual content of cocoa butter is significant here. White chocolate requires a minimum of 20% cocoa butter. The primary flavors of this type of chocolate are milk, sugar, and spices. There are also white chocolates that do not contain the amount of sugar that fans this type of chocolate. They are often added to various combinations of spices and other additives to elevate them to a higher aromatic level.
We finally come to an end or the beginning.
What does the percentage of cocoa really mean?
As you can see from the above categories, creating a chocolate taste starts with the selection of cocoa beans from which different processes produce chocolate. The percentage of cocoa actually indicates how many cocoa parts there are in a chocolate bar. More precisely, it suggests to us how many reliable parts (cocoa mass) and fat, related to cocoa butter, are obtained directly from cocoa beans. It might be best to say the percentage of cocoa represents how much chocolate is in chocolate.
From the categories above, the highest percentage of cocoa found is in unsweetened black chocolates. The other types have a smaller percentage of cocoa mass and an increasing percentage of sugar and milk. However, the rate does not reveal to us what types and quality of cocoa beans were used. That is why you may come across 60% cocoa chocolates made from quality grains, or 80% cocoa obtained from low-quality cocoa. And that’s not all. Percentage does not allow you to find out if the grains have processed correctly to extract the most delicate aromas from them. There is a percentage on the chocolate package that relates to the amount of cocoa mass. It has nothing to do with quality. So don’t make premature conclusions. There are times when chocolate with less percent of cocoa is better than chocolate with more.
In the end, when it comes to liking or embracing chocolate flavors, it may be best to compare them with wine flavors and realize that liking is solely up to us and so should remain.
Do you know how many types of chocolate there are? If you didn’t know, there are four types, and the ones in question are white, milky, ruby and dark.
