With so many types of chocolate available, do you know what’s in them, how they are made, and when to use each type when baking?
Chocolate is more than a guilty-pleasure snack or treat-yourself dessert. It comes in many shapes, forms, and sizes, and it’s essential to know the difference if you decide to cook or bake with it.
Types of chocolate at a glance
| Type | What’s in it | Flavor | Best uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsweetened (baking bar) | 100% cacao, no added sugar | Intense, bitter, complex | Brownies, cakes, crinkle cookies, sauces |
| Semi-sweet and bittersweet | At least 35% chocolate liquor, plus sugar | Bittersweet is a little less sweet than semi-sweet | Lava cakes, cream pies, fudge |
| Milk chocolate | At least 10% chocolate liquor and 12% milk solids | Mild, sweet, and smooth | Candies and eating bars |
| White chocolate | Cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar; no cocoa solids | Sweet and creamy with vanilla notes | Coatings, drizzles, and decorations |
| Couverture | Extra cocoa butter (32 to 39%), finely ground | Rich and very smooth | Tempering, truffles, dipping, chocolate bark |
| Ruby chocolate | Made from ruby cacao beans | Sweet with a natural berry flavor | Dipping fruit and cookies |
| Chocolate chips | Less cocoa butter, plus emulsifiers to hold their shape | Dark, milk, or white | Cookies, mug cakes, brownies |
| Candy coating | Vegetable fats in place of cocoa butter | Sweet; sets quickly without tempering | Cake pops, dipped strawberries |
| Gianduja | Chocolate with at least 30% hazelnut paste | Nutty and velvety | Spreads, gelato, candies |
| Cocoa powder | Cocoa solids with most of the cocoa butter removed | Natural is sharp; Dutch-processed is mellow | Baking and hot cocoa |
Unsweetened chocolate baking bar
It is made of 100% roasted and fermented cacao nibs. It’s ground into a paste, melted, and then hardened into a bar that naturally contains cocoa butter but no added sweeteners. It’s a top choice for adding robust, complex chocolate flavor to baked goods like brownies, cakes, chocolate crinkle cookies, dessert sauces, and coatings.
Semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate
Unlike unsweetened baking chocolate, these have added sweeteners. Legally, it must contain at least 35% chocolate liquor and can go up to 99%. The rest can be sweeteners and emulsifiers. Semisweet chocolate tends to be sweeter than bittersweet chocolate. I use semi-sweet for chocolate cream pie and melted bittersweet for lava cakes and a salted caramel chocolate tart. Mix it with sweetened condensed milk to make homemade fudge.
White chocolate
Although controversial and not technically chocolate because it lacks cocoa solids, white chocolate is still classified as a variety. Cocoa butter creates its super-creamy mouthfeel and sweetest taste because it lacks bitter ingredients. Its vanilla flavor and light color make it popular for coating or decoration, and you can also color it for a festive design. Melt some to drizzle over chai tea latte popsicles.
Couverture chocolate
This high-quality, top-shelf chocolate has higher fluidity, making it ideal for thin coatings and crisp products. It has more cocoa butter than traditional chocolate (between 32 and 39%) and is ground to a finer consistency during production, so it tastes very decadent. It’s the best chocolate for tempering when making truffles, enrobing, dipping strawberries, and homemade candies like chocolate bark.
Ruby chocolate
Hearing the name, you might picture a red velvet color, but it’s more pastel pink. And food coloring isn’t responsible for the color. Ruby chocolate is derived from a ruby cacao bean and has a natural berry flavor. It has the sweetness and smooth texture of white chocolate, with a hint of cocoa taste.
You may also see it called ruby couverture or ruby cacao. Melt some and dip dried or fresh fruit pieces for fancy decoration. Dip with sugar cookies and top with sprinkles for a colorful treat.
Chocolate baking chips
These tiny morsels have been formulated to keep their shape when baked in the oven for cakes, cookies, brownies, and bars. Chocolate chips are made of chocolate liquor, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, milk fat, flavors, and soy lecithin to emulsify and stabilize the chips. They have a lower percentage of cocoa butter to reduce the melt to keep their teardrop appearance.
They come in dark, milk, and white varieties. Milk and semi-sweet chips are iconic for chocolate chip cookies and M&M cookies, or bursts of flavors in a mug cake. White chocolate chips have no powder or liquor. Add them into Baileys brownies, apple oatmeal cookies, or white chocolate snickerdoodles. Any type of chocolate chip can be melted for sauces, mousses, beverages, and the filling in homemade Milano cookies.
Candy coating chocolate
Also called melting chocolates, they often contain vegetable fats like palm oil and palm kernel oil instead of cocoa butter. This helps them set quickly at room temperature and does not require tempering. Other ingredients may include cocoa, sugar, milk powder, soy lecithin, preservatives, and vanilla. You’ve probably eaten it on dipped cake pops, chocolate covered strawberries, and cookies.
Gianduja chocolate
Picture chocolate. Now, add hazelnut paste to the mixture. That’s gianduja chocolate. This Italian confection comes as small candies or a soft, velvety spread made with at least 30% roasted Piedmontese hazelnuts, sugar, and dark or milk chocolate. It’s often added to gelato for a rich taste and hazelnut flavor. Homemade Nutella has a similar flavor base but isn’t as rich or thick.
Cocoa powder and cacao powder
Cocoa powder is what’s left when most of the cocoa butter is pressed out of chocolate liquor, then the solids are dried and ground. It’s the go-to for brownies, cakes, hot cocoa, and anywhere you want deep chocolate flavor without extra fat. You’ll see a few versions on the shelf, and they don’t always behave the same way in recipes.
Cacao powder
Cacao powder starts from fermented beans that are processed at lower temperatures instead of being roasted. The result tastes more bitter and intense than cocoa powder. If you swap it in for cocoa, start with a little less, taste, and adjust.
Natural cocoa powder
Natural cocoa comes from fermented and roasted beans that are ground and sifted with no further treatment. It’s naturally acidic, with a sharp, fruity chocolate flavor and a lighter reddish-brown color.
Dutch-processed cocoa powder
Dutch-processed (or alkalized) cocoa is treated with an alkaline solution, usually potassium carbonate, which raises the pH to between about 5.7 and 7.2. That makes it less bitter and darker in color, and it dissolves more easily in liquids, which is why it’s popular for hot cocoa and dark chocolate cakes.
Which leavener to use
Acidity matters when you bake. Natural cocoa and cacao powder are acidic, so they react with baking soda to help batters rise. Dutch-processed cocoa has had its acidity neutralized, so recipes that use it usually call for baking powder instead. If you substitute one cocoa for another, check the leavener too. For more swaps, see my guide to common baking substitutes.
The United States F.D.A. standards of chocolate
- Semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate must contain at least 35% chocolate liquor. There’s no official standard for “dark chocolate,” but most dark chocolate bars fall into this category. Unsweetened, semi-sweet, and bittersweet baking chocolate have the most robust, bitter flavor. They’re most often used for cooking and baking.
- Milk chocolate must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor and 12% milk solids. It will melt better than dark chocolate because of the added dairy. This type has a mild cocoa flavor and a smooth, sweet chocolate taste. It’s most often used for candies and bars.
- White chocolate doesn’t contain cocoa solids (the powder) — only cocoa butter, milk solids, and additional sweeteners and emulsifiers — which is why many people argue it’s not actual chocolate. Authentic white chocolate contains at least 20% cocoa butter for a smooth melt, whereas other products mostly use palm oil and can’t be labeled as chocolate.
How is chocolate made?
First things first. You can’t call yourself a chocolate connoisseur without knowing where it comes from and how it’s made. Take a decadent chocolate cake, for instance. It started as cacao beans inside a fruit growing on a tree.
Then someone harvested, fermented, dried, and roasted the cacao beans. From there, they separated the nibs from the shell and ground them. This creates cocoa powder and cocoa butter that mix as they’re ground, forming cocoa liquor (also called mass)—pure, unadulterated chocolate.
That liquor can be cooled and hardened to create unsweetened baking chocolate, or the cocoa powder and cocoa butter can be separated. The next step is a refining process called conching, where the ingredients are smeared against rollers until super smooth.
Cocoa liquor, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and hardened baking chocolate (powder and butter together) can all be combined in various ways and proportions to create any number of chocolate products you know and love.
What does the percentage on the label mean?
The percentage listed on the label indicates how much of the chocolate bar is cocoa powder and cocoa butter, the pure, unadulterated chocolate. The rest of the bar is made up of added sugar, sweeteners, and other ingredients.
The lower the cocoa content percentage, the sweeter the chocolate bar will taste because that means more sugar was added. The higher the percentage, like 100% cocoa or cacao, the less sweet the chocolate will taste.
What else is added to chocolate?
For dark chocolate, only sugar was likely added to the cocoa liquor. However, to make milk chocolate, producers also add milk powder. White chocolate is just cocoa butter, sugar, and milk powder (no cocoa liquor, which contains the solids and would give it traditional chocolate color).
Chocolate producers also add vanilla to sweeten chocolate and lecithin as an emulsifier that helps the chocolate’s oil and water work together.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Cacao refers to the beans, and to products made from them with minimal processing, like cacao powder and cacao nibs. Dark chocolate is made from roasted cacao that’s been ground into chocolate liquor and mixed with sugar, and sometimes vanilla and emulsifiers, which makes it smoother and less bitter.
You can, but bars usually melt smoother. Chocolate chips are made with less cocoa butter and added emulsifiers so they hold their shape in the oven, which also makes them thicker when melted. For dipping, drizzling, and sauces, chopped baking bars or couverture give you a more fluid, glossy finish. Here’s my guide on how to melt chocolate.
Yes, in most recipes. Both contain at least 35% chocolate liquor, and semi-sweet is a little sweeter. Swapping one for the other changes the sweetness and depth of chocolate flavor slightly.
Hungry for more? Browse my 13 best chocolate recipes.
Hanna Debia says
I hope you can offer some advice: love chocolatey drinks but have been avoiding store bought, so I ordered some organic pure cacao powder which I mixed with hot lactaid milk. It had a king of taste I didnt like, plus I thought it had undertones of grittyness, not as smooth as Nesquick. After trying with almond milk and then soy, I gave up.
What could I use the rest of it for?
Jessica Gavin says
I actually do something similar in banana almond milk, stirring in the cocoa. It takes a bit longer to dissolve and more agitation, otherwise it is a bit clumpy. Sometimes I stir it into oatmeal, you can use it to replace cocoa powder in baking recipes, or add it to smoothies.