Chocolate Day: Milk To Ruby- Know Different Types Of Chocolates

Chocolate Day: The kind of chocolate produced depends on the ratio of cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, sugar, and other components.

Chocolate Day: Know Different Types Of Chocolates (Image Source: Canva)

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Everybody loves chocolate— sweet, tasty, and perfect in any type— from dark to milk to now ruby chocolate. Beginning with the cacao beans of Theobroma cacao, they undergo the processes of fermentation, drying, roasting, and grinding, whose major products include cocoa butter and chocolate liquor. The kind of chocolate produced depends on the ratio of cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, sugar, and other components. On Chocolate Day, celebrated on July 7 every year, let's have a look at the different kinds of chocolate.

Here Are 6 Different Types Of Chocolates You Need To Know:

Milk chocolate:

Milk chocolate is the widest spread type, consisting of 10–40% cacao, sweetener, and condensed milk or milk powder. It has a lesser intensity of chocolate flavour compared to dark or bittersweet chocolate, and is lighter in colour, more closely resembling brown. Nevertheless, it contains a lot of sugar, causing it to burn easily when cooked, making it unsuitable for baking.

Milk chocolate, first made in Switzerland in the late 19th century, is obtained from cocoa solids, sugar, and milk. To do this, the mixture is condensed and tempered to improve the texture while at the same time imparting and enhancing the chocolate’s taste. 

White chocolate:

Unfortunately, ingredients like chocolate liquor or cocoa solids are missing, and all that white chocolate has is cocoa butter. That is why white chocolate has a more vanilla-like taste than a chocolatey one. Ideally, it is composed of cocoa butter (20–50%), sugar to a maximum of 55%, and milk solids (about 10–15%).

White chocolate as a product was first introduced in the 1930s by the Nestlé Company in Switzerland. It is made by blending cocoa butter with sugar, milk solids, and sometimes vanilla, conching, and tempering to create a silky feel. 

 

Image Source: Pinterest/@Plays Well With Butter

Dark chocolate:

Dark chocolate is commonly made up of chocolate liquor, sugar, and cocoa butter, possibly with the addition of lecithin, an emulsifier, and vanilla as a flavouring agent. However, it does not have any solid milk constituents within it like milk chocolate. Dark chocolate contains between thirty and eighty percent of cocoa. Semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolates fall under dark chocolates and are commonly employed in baking.

Dark chocolate, which emerged from the pre-Hispanic people of Mesoamerica, is produced using cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and sugar. It is conched to improve the texture and get a smooth and shiny surface through the tempering process.

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Sweet German chocolate:

German’s sweet chocolate, or sweet baking chocolate, is another kind of dark chocolate named after its inventor, Samuel German, and is partly sweetened. It is used in the preparation of German Chocolate Cake, which is a type of dessert that comprises three chocolate cakes and a sugary mixture of coconut and pecan.

This chocolate was invented by Samuel German in 1852, and it has sugar included in the mix. For this reason, it is melted and incorporated into cake recipes in batters or when employed in frostings. 

Ruby chocolate:

Ruby chocolate is a new variety of chocolate introduced in China in September 2017, that was developed by the Swiss company Barry Callebaut. It’s made from ruby cocoa beans originating from Ecuador and Brazil and has a pink hue. It is sweet but not sour to taste, somewhat like white chocolate, and contains no berries.

This chocolate is made from ruby cocoa beans, which are processed in a special way to give it a ruby colour and taste. It is melted and tempered to be incorporated in different confections and offers a bright note and fruitiness. 

 

Image Source: Pinterest/@Creative Market

Bittersweet chocolate:

Extra-dark chocolate, also identified as bittersweet chocolate, has become the rage with more cocoa constituents, and a minimum of 66%. Its cocoa content is 70% and above, it contains antioxidants and has a less sweet taste. Even more, the invention of small-batch bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers has boosted its demand. The flavour of bittersweet chocolate depends on the origin of the cacao bean and could be described as fruity or earthy. It can be substituted with semisweet chocolate in baking, thus improving delicacies such as chocolate chip cookies and molten cakes.

The product focusing on high cocoa content was born, with bittersweet chocolate coming later. To produce cocoa beans, they are fermented, dried, roasted, ground, and made into chocolate liquor, then mixed with sugar and cocoa butter. There is a conching and tempering process to make sure that the chocolate has a good texture and finished taste that is ideal for desserts.

(Anasuya Suji Anil is a student of NIFT)