We've all encountered both milk and dark chocolate in stores, and we've probably all eaten some of each. We know that the milk types tends to be softer and sweeter than dark, but we might not know much more. If you've been wondering what the real difference between the two, as well as all the other kinds out there, here are the basic facts.
We discovered that we could separate cocoa and butter from a processed bean. These substances are combined in different ways to give us the different kinds of chocolate: milk, dark, and white. Technically, white ones isn't really chocolate, however. It contains only sugar and cocoa butter, not cocoa solids.
Unsweetened ones are made of pure chocolate liquor mixed with a fat - usually cocoa butter. It's also called baking or bitter choco. The flavor of this is strong, but it's not usually eaten on its own. Instead, it is is used for making cookies, brownies, cakes and similar foods.
Dark chocolate is made from cocoa solids or liquor to which fat and sugar have been added. Usually it must have its fats from the liquor, and its often very high in concentration - 65% or more. This is my personal favorite. Besides tasting great to me I know in certain quantities there could be health benefits to eating them.
Milk chocos are made similarly to dark ones, but it uses less cocoa and adds milk powder or condensed milk, too. The process of making solid chocolate using condensed milk was perfected in the 1870s. This is the most common type used in everyday candy bars.
Semi-sweet types are used mostly for cooking (such as in chocolate chip cookies). It's a low sugar type of dark chocolate.
Bittersweet types are similar to semi-sweet, but uses more cocoa butter and less sugar. It's interchangeable in baking, but higher percentages usually indicate a less sweet chocolate.
Couverture has a high cocoa butter content. These kinds contain high percentages as well as a high total fat content.
The powders is made by removing almost all of the cocoa butter from the liquor and allowing the solids to dry. They're then ground. There are two main types of powder - natural, which is more acidic, and dutch process.
Compound ones refers to cocoa combined with vegetable fats like palm oil. Not a true chocolate, this is part of "chocolatey coatings" and "choco flavored confections". Some white types are also made without cocoa butter and fall into this category.
