Why oh why oh why do people say things like “I only eat chocolate if its 75% cocoa solids or more…..”? You can guarantee at any event or tasting that I do that someone will say something similar. Would they say the same about wine? “I only drink reds that are 14% or more (alcohol)” I don’t think so! But they still insist on it with chocolate. I blame the cook book writers who tell people they must buy chocolate that is at least 70% for it to be any good. It’s just not the case anymore! Back in the day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) it may have been a good indication, but these days you can’t tell the quality of chocolate by its cocoa solids.

Cocoa solids are an indication of how bitter or sweet a chocolate is likely to be. Higher cocoa solids = more bitter, lower is sweeter. But its only an indication, some 70% chocolate is quite mild and some 64% quite punchy. The type of beans, the way they are roasted, refined, conched and many other processes all affect the resulting taste of the chocolate. Above all when choosing chocolate it depends on your taste, what you may be eating it with and what you like.

When we are making a new chocolate flavour we will pick the chocolate that we feel works best with it, and its not always 70% dark. Some flavours combine really well with a creamy, rounded milk chocolate but would be lost with dark chocolate. Stronger flavours can work well with a bitter, high cocoa dark chocolate. Its all about balance, as when matching wine with food, choose the type that complements the other flavours. So next time you are choosing chocolate, don’t just look at the cocoa solids!