Types of Chocolate
There are many different types of chocolate available, and the chocolate bars we usually eat or use for cooking are mainly of three types:
- Dark chocolate
- Milk chocolate
- White chocolate
Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate contains cocoa butter and cocoa solids (the meat of cocoa beans); it can also contain sugar and flavourings like vanilla. There are various types of dark chocolate, according to the percentage of cocoa solids and the amount of sugar they contain.
- Unsweetened chocolate, also called bitter chocolate or chocolate liquor. It contains no sugar and 99 to 100% of cocoa solids. Unsweetened chocolate is unsuitable for eating and it is usually used for cooking only.
- Bittersweet chocolate contains little sugar and between 35 and 85 % cocoa solid (a good quality bittersweet chocolate contains at least 50% cocoa solids)
- Semisweet chocolate contains a little bit more sugar and between 40 and 62% cocoa solids.
- Sweet chocolate is sweeter and contains between 35 and 45 % cocoa solids.
Milk Chocolate
In addition to cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar and flavourings, milk chocolate contains milk (at least 12% of the whole composition).
White Chocolate
White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, milk, vanilla but no cocoa solids. This is the reason why it is white and in some countries, like in the USA, law forbids to call it chocolate.
Other types of chocolate
These
three main types of chocolate can be enriched with other ingredients and flavours to give a delicious and endless range of chocolate. An example of this is Gianduia (from Piedmont, Italy), which is made adding hazelnut paste to chocolate and comes in bonbons or paste to spread
on bread. Chocolate can also be flavoured with orange, mint, liquor of filled with caramel or flavoured paste, like for example the English After Eight, which are made of dark chocolate filled with a kind of mint paste. Also dried fruit and or nuts, such as almonds or hazelnuts,
can be added to chocolate bars. The possibilities are really endless.
