Latest features Complete guide to chocolate

Date Published:

07/04/2009

The UK has become a buzzing centre for the craft of the chocolatier and London now ranks as one of the world’s top chocolate destinations. Martin Christy, editor of fine chocolate website Seventypercent.com and founder member of the Academy of Chocolate, brings us up to speed on the different types and quality out there

Types of chocolate

There's more to chocolate than the milk variety. Peruse the different types on offer.

High end chocolate is produced more in the style of a fine wine than an industrial candy bar. It is defined by the Academy of Chocolate as fine chocolate contains 'no vegetable fat other than cocoa butter', has a minimum cocoa content of 60 per cent and contains no artificial flavours or additives. For milk chocolate the percentage is 30 per cent.

Most importantly though, is the part of the Academy’s definition that states that 'the quality, provenance and treatment of the cocoa beans have been considered'. Fine chocolate means fine beans, and that’s only about 20 per cent of world production.

In recent years, a lot more chocolate has come onto the market that meets all or part of the criteria for 'fine chocolate'. Percentage and origin have become important marketing tools. Even your local newsagent probably has something that has 70 per cent on the front of the wrapper.

Very few companies in the world actually make chocolate though. Most chocolate, even the seemingly good stuff, is produced by a few dominant industrial size corporations. This is then sold on as bulk chocolate or 'couverture', which retail companies buy and turn into bars. We’ve all eaten chocolate from one of these mega-producers, though we almost certainly don’t know it. From your local 'Belgian' hand made chocolate store, to famous high street chains and supermarket own brands, it's all more or less the same chocolate, just in different wrappers.

No one is saying there’s not a place for the occasional brightly wrapped, kiddie-style high street, brand of chocolate. But these are simply confections with a small hint of chocolate in the mix. Check the ingredients list on the back - the percentage of cocoa solids can be very low. Milk chocolate can contain only 20 per cent cocoa solids. The rest is added fat, milk and sugar.

This refers to a chocolate maker who actually starts with imported cocoa beans and makes finished chocolate from them. Surprisingly few do, though you might not know it from the impression given on many a fancy looking wrapper.

The best bean-to-bar makers will have some influence, control or investment in the plantations from which their beans come. Terroir is just as important for cacao as it is for wine, as is the post-harvest treatment of the beans (which are really the seeds of an exotic tropical fruit.)

French and Italian companies lead the field, though a new trend in the US for 'micro-brewery' type chocolate makers is beginning to produce some interesting results.

Top bean-to-bar companies: France: Valrhona, Michel Cluizel, Pralus, Bonnat. Italy: Amedei, Domori, US: Amano. Switzerland: Felchlin.

This is a term more common in the US or in European translations. Historically, dark chocolate has tended to be over-roasted. This is a way to hide flaws on the cacao like the use of 'bulk' beans, lack of fermentation or mould. It’s no wonder many of us have grown up not liking dark chocolate. Good fine chocolate should never be bitter.

This is dark chocolate with added milk, usually in powdered form. Cacao variety and strength are still important though, and the best milks may have up to 50% cacao solids, higher than many a high street dark chocolate.

The best bean-to-bar companies also tend to make the best milk chocolate.

The main ingredients in white chocolate are cocoa butter, milk and sugar. Most cocoa butter - the fat that makes up half of a cacao bean - is 'deodorised', a process that removes any hint of flavour of the original beans. This is done so that the cocoa butter has no flavour impact on other chocolate products it might be used in. Unfortunately this means less flavour in white chocolate as well.

A very small number of companies use natural cocoa butter for their white chocolate. Venezuelan chocolate maker El Rey’s Icoa is one of the best examples.

Read up on the different varieties of cacao