The Basic Kinds of Chocolate

Dark chocolate is simply chocolate liquor (the centers of cocoa beans ground to a liquid), extra cocoa butter, sugar, an emulsifier (often lecithin) and vanilla or other flavorings. Dark chocolates may contain milk fat to soften the texture, but they do not generally have a milky flavor.

Dark chocolate also is known as semi-sweet chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate, or baking chocolate, is 100 percent chocolate liquor and is typically very bitter and astringent.

Darker chocolates often have a higher percent cacao, which means they have a higher proportion of cocoa beans in them than other chocolates do. See more about percent cacao and how it affects a chocolate’s taste.

Milk Chocolate: All of the above, plus milk solids.

Surprisingly, sweet and creamy milk chocolate isn’t usually made with cold, frothy milk. It’s usually made with dry milk solids, which look like powdered milk. Milk chocolate has at least 10 percent cocoa liquor by weight, and at least 12 percent milk solids. It’s the most common kind of eating chocolate.

White Chocolate:Cocoa butter takes center stage.

White chocolate features cocoa butter—think milk chocolate minus the cocoa solids.  In addition to the cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids, lecithin and vanilla, white chocolate may contain other flavorings. It has at least 20 percent cocoa butter, 14 percent milk solids, and no more than 55 percent sugar.