How to Buy Chocolate

Buy what you like. The differences in chocolate appeal to different tastes just as in wines. Try a number of different chocolates and decide which you like the best. You will find that you really can tell the difference in chocolate and though taste is a matter of preference, the really good chocolates are most often deemed superior. For cookies and chocolate coatings—anything where the chocolate is dominant and intense-- buy only the best.

In the United States, the government regulates the specifications for the various chocolates. If it doesn’t meet these specifications, it’s not chocolate but is labeled chocolate flavored.

Bitter (unsweetened) chocolate is made from pure chocolate liquor. By specification, it must contain 50 to 58 percent cocoa butter though with inferior products, vegetable oil may he added. Unsweetened chocolate has a bitter taste and relies on sweeteners in the recipe to make it palatable. Bittersweet and semisweet chocolate can be used interchangeably in recipes though there is a difference in flavor. Often, bittersweet is a more expensive chocolate and to many, a better, richer-flavored chocolate.

Sweet chocolate—bittersweet and semisweet chocolate--has sugar added. These products must contain 35 to 50% cocoa butter but may have as little as 15% chocolate liquor.
Milk chocolate is made with ten percent chocolate liquor. It contains a minimum of twelve percent milk solids. Because it has such a low percentage of chocolate liquor, rarely is it melted and added to batter or dough.

White chocolate contains no chocolate liquor but is made with cocoa butter. Historically, the FDA has not regulated the manufacture of white chocolate so you need to read labels carefully. Often vegetable oil is used in the manufacture of these chips.

Chocolate chips are made with chocolate liquor with only minimal amounts of cocoa butter. Instead, they are made with vegetable oil and stabilizers to help them hold their shape. Without the cocoa butter, chocolate chips have a different taste and mouth feel. Chocolate chips will have a firmer set in puddings, pie fillings, and sauces than baking chocolate.