By now, unless you are living in a cave (without wi-fi) you have all seen chocolate bars touting their darkness. It is no longer unusual to see chocolate bars proclaiming 70%, 72&, 75% 80%, 91% and more. The numbers are confusing at best and disingenuous at worst.
Let’s try and simplify the numbers game. There are 3 basic ingredients in dark chocolate-chocolate liquor (aka cacao paste, cocoa mass), cocoa butter and sugar. The 2 minor players in the dark drama are pure vanilla (or artificial vanillin) and soy lecithin-an emulsifier. The 3 stars make up 99% of the total weight and the 2 co-stars add the final 1%.
In our store I use couverature that is 68%, 70%, 72% and a new organic that is 74%. The flavors range from rich to floral to acetic and very complex. Do the numbers provide a guide, not really, do they indicate an increase in bitterness, sometimes yes other times, not so much. The number reliably only indicates 1 thing-drumroll please……………….sugar content. Quite simply start with 99% and subtract the cacao (cocoa) content and you are left with the percentage of sugar (99-70, 99-68 etc)
A certain percentage of chocolate liquor is actually cocoa butter, then more cocoa butter may be added to the mixture, this make the cocoa content percentage higher without contributing much to flavor.
The next time you taste a high cocoa content bar and it doesn’t taste as bittersweet or complex as you expect- it’s not you, it’s the bar. Trust your own good taste and only only only buy what you like. Use the stated cacao (cocoa) content as a rough guide.
A little hint: to get the full flavors out of a piece of chocolate, eat it as room temperature, try to soften it a bit before putting it in your mouth and then, relax, let it slowly melt and enjoy.