Chocolate Types

If you want to host an exceptional party, one that every guest will remember for a long time to come, then you definitely want to consider using a chocolate fountain or fondue. Chocolate speaks the international language of food, meaning everyone loves it. By using a chocolate fountain or fondue, your home will fill with the sweet aroma of melted chocolate while guests can use various foods to dip into warm, creamy chocolate.

Roasting

For chocolate to be manufactured, cacao beans must first be roasted. Then, the beans are winnowed, which means the outer shells are removed. From there, beans are ground to make cocoa liquor. Next pressure is used to separate the cocoa liquor so the cocoa butter or fat is extracted. The next step involves cocoa liquor and sugar being blended and ground into very fine particles.

Blending

During the blending process, additional cocoa butter is added to various flavors and emulsifiers, such as vanilla. With continued grounding, the mixture becomes extremely smooth. The mixture is then conched, which is a combination of mixing, heating, agitating, and aerating for 24 hours so the final texture is velvet-like and without so much of a bitter taste.

Tempering

The mixture is then tempered, which is done by mixing melted chocolate at a controlled temperature so the right type of small crystals are formed. The result from tempering is a wonderful texture and appearance. From there, the chocolate is poured into molds and cooled down quickly. Regardless of the type of chocolate, the process is much the same.

These various flavors of chocolate include:

White Chocolate

This type of chocolate is made with sugar, cocoa butter, milk, vanilla, and emulsifier. To create white chocolate, non-fat ingredients from the cacao bean are not used, which results in the white coloring.

Milk Chocolate

This type of chocolate has a wonderful sweet flavor. Made fro 10% to 20% cocoa solids such as cocoa butter and cocoa and more than 12% milk solids, you end up with a creamy chocolate perfect for cooking baking.

Dark Chocolate

This too is a sweet chocolate but with a higher content of cocoa solids, as well as little to no milk. However, dark chocolate sometimes will contain up to 12% of milk solids. With this type of chocolate, you will find variations to include sweet, semi-sweet, unsweetened, and bittersweet.

Sweet Dark Chocolate

Although this type of dark chocolate is somewhat like regular semi-sweet chocolate, it usually contains between 35% and 45% cocoa solids.

Semi-Sweet Chocolate

In this case, you have a wonderful dark baking chocolate, most commonly used for baking cookies, brownies, and cakes. The flavor is sweet, containing 40% to 62% cocoa solids.

Bittersweet Chocolate

This dark chocolate has to contain a minimum of 35% cocoa solids although high quality bittersweet chocolate would have as much as 85%, varying between brands. With a high cocoa solid content, sugar is low, producing a rich but intense flavor. Most often, this type of chocolate is used for baking.

Unsweetened Chocolate

This particular type of chocolate is bitter and used only for baking, not eating. With this chocolate, the cocoa solid levels are near 100%.