FoodBanter.com - what do choc percentages refer to (eg. 50% min cocoa solids)

at Thu, 08 Jul 2004 23:43:19 GMT in <r_kHc.814511$Ar.79295
@twister01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>, (Tom) wrote :

>
>The Ghirardelli web site says
>
>"Bittersweet chocolate often has an unsweetened chocolate content of 50%
>or more."
>http://www.ghirardelli.com/chocolate_types.html
>
>They seem to always indicate percentages as % of "unsweetened
>chocolate", which I take it is processed nibs, but does not include the
>cocoa butter.
>
>Most chocolates indicate a % minimum "cocoa solids", is this the same
>thing? ie. not including the cocoa butter?
>
>If so, I'm surprised that Ghirardelli would indicate that 50% is the cut
>off for semi-sweet vs. bittersweet chocolate, cause I would have thought
>it was more like 60%. I'm also surprised that their 'semi-sweet'
>chocolate bar is 35-45% - that seems quite low to me.
>
These are the USDA specifications - not something that's been decided upon
or agreed by experts in the chocolate world. So different manufacturers
have their own ideas of how high a percentage constitutes what type.
Ghirardelli is simply regurgitating the USDA definitions. Indeed, their own
chocolate has more than the minima in every case.

Speaking of cocoa solids is complex because cocoa butter is the only
component that is routinely entirely isolated from the raw chocolate mass,
known as chocolate liquor. If you took out all the cocoa butter from the
chocolate liquor, what you'd be left with is defatted cocoa solids,
essentially fat-free cocoa powder. But cocoa powder is sold with some
percentage of cocoa butter - typically 9 to 24%. So it's misleading to
speak of cocoa butter and cocoa powder, and in any case, in chocolate bars,
what's done is to add cocoa butter to chocolate liquor, not to cocoa
powder. In any case, the cocoa solids percentage refers to the combined sum
of defatted cocoa solids and cocoa butter, essentially, the chocolate
liquor plus whatever cocoa butter was added. I believe percentage of
unsweetened chocolate, however, does refer to pure chocolate liquor without
cocoa butter, for 2 reasons: first, decent chocolate has about 40% cocoa
butter, so even at the point of 35% cocoa solids it would be white
chocolate (or rather, sugared cocoa butter), and second, because up until
recently the USDA didn't permit white chocolate to be labelled as such at
all, considering it not even chocolate. (Admittedly, except in the case of
El Rey, they have something of a point).

--
Alex Rast

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