Types of chocolate

There are many types of chocolate; white chocolate, dark chocolate and everything in between.

White chocolate is based on milk, sugar and cocoa butter or vegetable oils. It doesn’t contain any cocoa solids and there are those who think that white chocolate should not even belong to the chocolate family for this reason. White chocolate tends to be sweet but should not be mistaken for a sweet chocolate which can be dark in color too as there is usually no restriction in milk with the latter. As it can be deduced, the more milk a chocolate contains, the whiter it becomes.

Milk chocolate contains milk powder or condensed milk.

Semisweet chocolate is usually used for cooking. It is dark with low sugar content.

Bittersweet chocolate contains more cocoa and less sugar, (typically a third). Vanilla and sometimes lecithin are also added. The rule goes that the higher the percentage of cocoa, the bitter the chocolate will be. Bittersweet and semisweet chocolate contain at least 35% of cocoa.

Dark chocolate does not contain milk as an additive and for this reason it is also called plain chocolate or black chocolate.

Unsweetened chocolate also known as bitter, baking or cooking chocolate comes from pure, ground, roasted cocoa beans that can be used for cakes and confections with the addition of sugar.

Couverture is used by professional pastry chefs and is rich in cocoa butter, sometimes 70% and more with a percentage of 30-40% of fat.

Cocoa powder is another type of baking cocoa and compound chocolate is used in a lot of candy bars as a replacement for cocoa butter. It translates into poor taste and can cause health problems.