Chocolate Chats Part 1

Chatting all things choc!

Since it’s chocolate season (nearly Easter) I thought it was time for a big old chat about chocolate, this is a post that I’ve been working on for a while and I’m so excited to share. I completed my patisserie apprenticeship whilst working at (at the time) Britain’s Best Chocolatier, it was an amazing experience and I learnt so much about chocolate during this time.

Although during my apprenticeship I was working with chocolate day in and day out we were only using one specific brand so my knowledge of other chocolates was fairly limited and I became a huge chocolate snob however 10 years on and after having used loads of different chocolates I have realised that snobbery is not cool and there are pros and cons to pretty much all chocolates, I know very few people who are above scranning on a bar of Dairy Milk despite it being considered low quality compared to chocolate aimed at professionals. I’ve attempted to cleanse my brain of snobbery before writing this post after all, I don’t think chefs with a superiority complex telling you that you have an unrefined pallet for liking a certain type of chocolate is especially helpful or educational.

I decided to use this post as an opportunity to try all of the main brands and do a taste test as well as compare the price and various other factors. If you’re after information on tempering Chocolate Chats Part 2 is out now and I cover everything you’ve ever wanted to know about tempering!

Before looking at various different brands it’s important to understand a bit more about the history and the process of chocolate making so that we can understand the nuances of different chocolates and know what to look out for when comparing them.

A Brief History Of Chocolate

Of course chocolate as we know it is a delicious block of sugary goodness but it wasn’t always this way. Wild cacao was first consumed as long ago as 1500BC by the Olmec, one of the earliest civilisations in Latin America, they prepared cacao pods buy crushing them and cooking them with water to make a bitter drink which was used in rituals and as a medicine. The Mayans and the Aztecs continued to use the cacao pods to make both hot and cold drinks also adding spices like chilli and cinnamon, the Aztecs called this drink Xocolatl, literally meaning bitter water.

In the 1500s after Spanish colonisation, cacao beans made their way to Spain where they were still enjoyed as a drink, the Spanish adapted it to their tastes by adding cane sugar and cinnamon. It wasn’t until the 1800s that chocolate as we know it was created, the invention of the cacao press completely revolutionised chocolate, this machine crushed roasted cacao beans, extracting the fat and leaving behind a powder, this way cocoa powder and cocoa butter were created. The two were then combined with sugar and set in a mould to create an edible bar of chocolate.

Since then cocoa trees have migrated across the world, growing either side of the equator, the majority of cocoa beans used for chocolate now come from West Africa and the process of making chocolate has evolved.

How Is Chocolate Made?

Each chocolate maker will have their own specific way of making chocolate but they all follow these general steps.

1. Cacao pods are cut from the trees, the fruit and beans are scooped out of the pod and wrapped in banana leaves before being left to ferment for around 6 days.

2. The beans are then spread out and left to dry out in the sun for 1-2 weeks.

3. The beans are then packed up and shipped to chocolate manufacturers.

4. The beans are lightly roasted, like coffee the roasting will have an affect on the final flavour.

5. The roasted beans are then crushed to remove the outer shell, leaving cacao nibs, these are crunchy and bitter with a rich cocoa flavour, I really love using them in baking!

   

   cocoa pod cc. Callebaut, Cocoa beans cc. Pump Street, Cacao nibs

6. The nibs are then ground by being passed through a series of rollers, steadily getting smoother and smoother. This process causes the fat to be released to creates a paste which sets solid, the texture is similar to that of chocolate but at this stage it’s still quite gritty and without any sugar it’s incredibly bitter and tastes just like cocoa powder, this is cocoa mass or sometimes cocoa liquor.

7. At this point all of the fat can be extracted from the cocoa mass to leave us with cocoa powder or and cocoa butter. In cheaper chocolates the cocoa butter is often removed and sold on to cosmetics companies where it can fetch a higher price, this is then partially replace with vegetable fats.

8. Cacao mass is then mixed with sugar, additional fats (either cocoa butter or vegetable fat), vanilla, an emulsifier (usually soya lecithin) and sometimes milk solids which then goes through a process called conching.

9. Conching is a process that was developed by Swiss chocolatier, Rodolphe Lindt, in the late 19th century, the unrefined chocolate is forced between granite rollers, which crush and mix it, this not only makes the chocolate smoother but it also heats and aerates it, which forces some of the more astringent acids to evaporate, removing bitterness and resulting in a smooth and velvety chocolate. This process takes anywhere from 12 hours to 70 hours depending on the quality of the chocolate.

10. Finally the chocolate is tempered, the chocolate is heated and then rapidly cooled, this creates stable fat crystals that set evenly resulting in a shiny chocolate that snaps when broken. This is something I’ll fully get into in part 2!

Conching cc. Pump Street, Cocoa butter cc. Healthline, Tempered chocolate bonbons

Even though chocolate generally follows the same process there are a few key differences when making different kinds of chocolate, so let’s take a look at the big 3.

Dark: Dark chocolate is made exactly as above, in order to be considered dark it must contain at least 35% cocoa solids but in reality dark chocolate usually contains around 50-85% cocoa solids, the remaining percentage is made up of sugar, vanilla, emulsifiers and sometimes vegetable fats. Some dark chocolates also contain milk, although this isn’t the norm.

Milk: Milk chocolate contains a lower percentage of cocoa mass, generally somewhere between 25-45%. As we can infer from the name, milk chocolate contains milk solids and fats and a higher percentage of sugar than dark, this combination makes it sweeter and creamier, as with dark it will also contain vanilla, emulsifiers and sometimes vegetable fats.

White: Unlike milk and dark chocolate, white chocolate contains no cocoa mass at all, the only part of the cocoa plant that it uses is the cocoa butter, this is combined with milk powder, sugar, vanilla, emulsifiers and sometimes vegetable fats. This leaves us with the question “Is white chocolate even really chocolate if it doesn’t contain any cocoa mass?” You can draw your own conclusion here, I think the most important thing to note is that the flavour of white chocolate is fairly consistent compared to milk and dark, The fermentation and roasting of the beans have very little affect on the flavour of the cocoa butter so the only factors affecting the taste are the percentages of milk powder, sugar and vanilla. For this reason I’m not including white chocolate in my taste comparisons, I find the differences to be negligible, the most important thing is to avoid chocolates containing vegetable fats, I generally use Callebaut.

Dark, milk & white chocolate

Percentages And Why They Matter

Although we’ve already touched on percentages, I wanted to take a closer look at them because they’re not as simple as they seem!

The percentage of a chocolate referees to the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate, HOWEVER this includes cocoa butter and cocoa solids (this is basically ground nibs), in theory you could have a bar of dark chocolate that’s labelled at 70% but within that percentage cocoa mass could account for as little as 35%, this would never really happen because the flavour would be incredibly weak and fatty but it does mean that there is a lot of variables even in chocolates labelled with the same percentages. This also hugely affects the consistency of the chocolate when melted making some chocolates lovely and fluid when tempered, making them easier to work with whilst some can be thick and gloopy. This also has an affect of the texture when used, making ganaches, mousses etc set differently. It’s still a good rule of thumb to say a higher percentage chocolate is generally more bitter but just something worth considering. This imagine that I took from the Valrhona website is a good visual to refer to!

cc. Valrhona

Percentages are also dictated by what is required by food regulation laws, these vary from country to country, the point of these laws is to ensure products meet a certain quality, they tend to restrict the uses of vegetable fats and sugar substitutes, generally “chocolate” that doesn’t meet these requirements will have to be labelled differently for example if you see products labelled “chocolate flavoured bar/chips” this is generally an indication that they either contain too little chocolate solids or too many vegetable fats. We can see the differences here.

Chocolate Brands

I’ve focused on six of the most popular brands available in the UK, of course there are loads more that I could have tested but I had to call it somewhere, for my taste tests I bought each brand’s most popular milk an dark chocolate but it is worth noting that a lot of these brands have loads of different chocolates to choose from and whilst I wish I could have tried every single possible chocolate I would have bankrupt myself if I’d bought them all.

Callebaut

Starting big! Callebaut is the leading supplier of couverture chocolate, this is what most professionals and keen home bakers are using, if you go into almost any professional kitchen, you’re going to find bags of Callebaut chocolate callets (not allowed to call them chips for legal reasons apparently???). It’s popular for a reason, it’s good quality, their chocolates have a nice rounded flavour, they have a few options in terms of percentages and the price is reasonable, it’s a really good all-round chocolate. I would say the only negative to Callebaut chocolate is that the flavour could be considered fairly one dimensional compared to other brands, the chocolate tastes like, well… chocolate and they don’t have a huge selection to choose from (although they are adding more and more). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but if you’re a real chocolate nerd you might be looking for more depth of flavour or more unique flavour profiles. Although Callebaut don’t have as many milk and dark chocolates to choose from as some other brands they are leaders in innovation, being the first and only company to produce ruby chocolate.

Another little tidbit is that Callebaut supplies a tonne of smaller companies including Tony’s Chocolonely, so when you’re buying one of those nice big chocolate bars from the supermarket you’re actually just buying Callebaut with some chunks in.

*I want to add here that I did work with Callebaut last year and have some chocolate from that project but I’m not obligated to talk about it here and everything I share is 100% my honest opinion.

Pros: Good base chocolate, reasonable price, innovators.

Cons: Less variety milk and dark than other brands.

Cacao Barry

Cacao Barry is actually under the same umbrella company as Callebaut but for some reason it doesn’t seem to be as well known, in my opinion Cacao Barry chocolate is underrated. They offer a huge variety of chocolates with something for every taste, from super acidic, fruity chocolates to rich bitter chocolates with notes of tobacco. I’ve worked with this brand a lot, in the past it was slightly more affordable than Valrhona but recently prices seem to have levelled out and now they sit at a similar price per kilo.

Pros: Good variety to choose from.

Cons: On the pricier side.

Valrhona

In my opinion Valrhona is on the same level as Cacao Barry, like Cacao Barry they offer a huge selection of milk and dark chocolates, I would say that their selection of speciality chocolates is better, they have multiple blond chocolates and a a selection of fruit based vegan chocolates or “inspirations”, which we’ll get into in a bit.

Where Valrhona beats other brands is on the marketing, people recognise the name instantly and trust it to be great quality, it means that chefs can shout about using it and get a bit of street cred, the distinctive shape of the chips (or fèves, I don’t know why they all need specific names for choc chips) also helps with this, you know instantly when you see them that they’re Valrhona and they’re going to be delicious.

One thing about Valrhona that’s interesting is that rather than using soya lecithin as an emulsifier, they use sunflower lecithin so if soy allergies are a concern, this is worth noting!

Pros: Amazing selection, probably the best, well known in the industry, innovative.

Cons: On the pricier side.

Pump Street

I would put Pump Street in a completely different category to the other brands we’ve looked at so far, it’s a much smaller scale production and I would say a big selling factor is the fact that you’re supporting a smaller UK based business rather than a huge corporation. In terms of variety, they’re pretty limited when it comes to baking chocolate which is to be expected from smaller companies, they have 2 dark options, one milk and one white. Their chocolates are notable because they have extremely high percentages of cocoa mass, the milk that they offer is 58%, a percentage that would normally be found in dark chocolates, this makes for extremely intense flavours.

A huge plus side of Pump Street and a lot of other smaller companies is that they generally have a closer relationship with the cacao farmers and put in a lot of work to make sure their products are as ethical as possible as well as a focus on sustainability. Of course this all comes at a price and this chocolate costs twice as much kilo than brands like Valrhona and Cacao Barry.

Unlike the others Pump Street doesn’t use any emulsifiers, I don’t really have an opinion on this but I suppose it could be considered “cleaner” or good if you’re avoiding soy.

Pros: Ethical and sustainable.

Cons: Extremely pricey, not a huge variety.

Green & Blacks

Green & Blacks is probably one of the best super market chocolates, it’s decent quality, has a good depth of flavour, but if you’re getting through a tonne of chocolate I’d definitely recommend getting Valrhona or Cacao Barry instead, it’s about the same price per kilo, there’s a better selection and it’s already in handy chips. Really when it comes to supermarket chocolate I’d say just get whichever good brand is on offer, often the posher supermarket own brands are pretty good. For me, they’re all fairly interchangeable as long as they don’t contain vegetable fats so it’s worth having a quick look at the ingredients.

Pros: Good base chocolate, easy to get hold of.

Cons: Not as good as other brands for the price.

Cadbury

Cadbury isn’t really considered a chocolate for professional use but I wanted to include a snacking chocolate in here just for comparison. These chocolates contain much lower cocoa mass than those aimed at professionals and contain added vegetable fats in the form of palm oil (never a good thing) and shea. The vegetable fats higher melting point than cocoa butter with vegetable fats meaning that when you eat it the fats coat you pallet rather than just melting away. Cadbury dark chocolate is also notable because it contains milk powder which isn’t usually added.

For me Cadbury chocolate is better as a snacking chocolate, (I love a Dairy Milk Diam bar), Callebaut sits at around the same price and is a much higher quality.

Pros: Easy to get hold of, distinctive flavour.

Cons: Contain vegetable fats and low cocoa mass.

I’ve created this table so that we can easily compare the prices and flavours, for both price and flavour I’m comparing each brands base chocolate, a lot of them offer chocolates that are a lot more expensive/have more interesting flavour profiles. In terms of flavour of course a lot of it comes down to personal preferences!

Speciality Chocolates

I’ve touched on speciality chocolates but I wanted to give a brief rundown of each and what makes them different from other chocolates.

Callebaut Ruby: This is a chocolate that is made from cacao beans that were previously discarded and labelled unusable, they have a natural pink colour and a fruity flavour. Unlike classic chocolate this is made without roasting the beans which means it retains a very fresh fruity flavour and it’s natural pink colour. Unlike white chocolate Ruby contains cocoa solids but flavour is nothing like milk or dark chocolate, I’d say it tastes most like white chocolate but with added acidity and fruitiness, similar to that of white chocolate with added freeze dried fruit powder. It’s a really interesting product, and most importantly it’s pink!

Gold/Blonde Chocolate: These are white chocolates made with caramelised or unrefined sugar rather than refined cane sugar, this adds a lovely caramely flavour, it’s essentially caramelised white chocolate but without the work of caramelising it yourself. Valrhona had the best offering when it comes to blond chocolate offering two white blond chocolates and a Caramelia which is a milk chocolate using caramelised sugar.

Valrhona Inspirations: These are essentially vegan white chocolate alternatives, rather than milk powder, powdered fruit is added to cocoa butter giving it an intense fruity flavour.

Where To Buy

If you’re not in the industry some of these brands can be difficult to get your hands on but don’t worries, I’ve got you covered! If you’re in the UK here are my top places to buy chocolate from:

Strawberry Red - for Callebaut, Cacao Barry & Valrhona

Sous Chef - for Callebaut & Valrhona in smaller quantities

Pump Street - for Pump Street

Literally any supermarket for the others!

My Chocolatey Thoughts

Overall I think the best thing to do when it comes to chocolate is experiment and find your favourites, if it can fit in your budget I’d definitely recommend buying from smaller businesses.

For paid subscribers I’m going to be sharing the recipe for a lovely rich chocolate mousse cake, so if you’re not already a paid subscriber please consider upgrading! I share exclusive recipes every single week and you’ll get access to the full archive of recipes plus you’ll be helping to support my work! 🩷