Different Types of Chocolates By Chris Alleny At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

When people think of chocolate no two people are the same

Most chocolates that people are familiar with are dark, milk, white, semi-sweet, and maybe sugar-free.

But there are so many more out there.

Take AERATED chocolate for instance. It usually dark or white chocolate where air bubbles are introduced to the chocolate as it is being made.

And then there is FILLED Chocolate. It is a chocolate that additives were added. Things like nuts, jelly pieces, dried fruits and even cereals.

As for Organic, it is made from the raw material that the farmers produce.

In the 1990's chocolates with a high content of cocoa became very popular in Europe. The content of cocoa was 40-60%. Now some producers make chocolate ranging from 70 to 85%. There are even some that contain 99%!

Here is a list of unknown or unimagined chocolates.

Raw or Roasted Cacao--- this the whole cacao bean minus the shell.

Cacao Nibs---this the broken up pieces of the bean.

Ground Cacao---as the name suggests it's the bean ground up.

It is the healthiest form of chocolate there is however it can be quite bitter to the taste.

Chocolate Liquor--- Unlike what it's name may suggest there is no alcohol added. This how chocolate starts. Producers start by grinding cacao nibs into a liquid paste in which nothing is added. It has about 53% cocoa butter at this stage.

Unsweetened Chocolate---this what people use to bake with. It is sometimes referred as pure or bitter chocolate. It contains at least 35% chocolate liquor. There is cocoa and sugar in various amounts. There really no difference between bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate. Often times they are referred as dark chocolate. The chocolate bittersweet or semi-sweet (the type baked with) is sweetened by adding cocoa liquor without adding the cocoa butter.

Sweet Chocolate---this chocolate is sometimes mistaken for bittersweet. The reason being that it contains at least 15% chocolate liquor in which cocoa butter and sugar is added in various amounts.

Milk Chocolate: This chocolate contains at least 10% chocolate liquor then cocoa butter and sugar is added in various amounts then at least 12% milk, cream, or milk powder is added.

White Chocolate: technically isn't considered a type of chocolate since it doesn't contain chocolate liquor. But it must have at least 20% cocoa butter and 14% milk with sugar added in various amounts. No wonder my white fudge never turns out!

Cocoa powder--- is really cocoa powder or unsweetened cocoa.

Then the last on my list is Dutched Chocolate.

It is formed by washing cocoa powder in an alkali solution of Potassium Carbonate. This wash darkens the color and neutralizes acidity of the cocoa powder. Cocoa that is very alkalized is called Black cocoa. This is the chocolate used in Oreo cookies.

In short the use and types of chocolate just depends on the imagination of the producers. Then in turn the consumer who is using the chocolate. Well I can say for this, my imagination turned to making white chocolate fudge and as I stated earlier it didn't turn out. OH,well back to the drawing board. I haven't given up.

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