Chocolate, dark, milk, white

How Chocolate is made

The Geography of Chocolate

Chocolate Economy

Coffee, Tea, Wine and Chocolate

Chocolate Health

Dark, Milk and White Chocolates

Fair Trade Chocolate

Chocolate, dark, milk, white Part II

Couverture can be very good, if it's done by a reputable company. One way to tell is by the lack of artificial ingredients. Good chocolate shouldn't contain artificial flavors or colors, chemicals or even preservatives. And watch out for vanillin -not vanilla-vanillin. Here's a deceptive practice if ever I heard one. "Vanillin" is an artificial vanilla flavor, a chemical composition extracted from wood products. "Vanilla" is the real deal-the extract from the vanilla orchid whose heavenly perfume is one of the most compelling and popular know to mankind. Good chocolate contains vanilla.

Dark chocolate, which is heavily featured on this site as the ultimate in gourmet chocolate options, consists of chocolate mixed with sugar, vanilla and sometimes lecithin, which adds smoothness. The chocolate industry has named the mixture containing at least 60% pure chocolate (called cocoa mass or chocolate liquor) as dark chocolate: below 60%, and chocolate is usually combined with milk ingredients and called "milk chocolate". Many people argue that white chocolate, having no chocolate liquor, is no chocolate, but we take a more broad-minded view. White chocolate contains cocoa butter with added milk ingredients, sugar and vanilla. Sure, the chocolate liquor has been removed, so you're not getting any of the original chocolate content except the fat: but doesn't fat count for anything? So go ahead, call it "white chocolate"! We don't mind a bit.

It's true that chocolate aficionados tend to prefer dark chocolates-between 60-80%%. In the same way that you won't see a coffee lover indulging in a super-sweetened, heavily milked cuppa Joe, you won't see a chocolate connoisseur tucking into a Three Musketeers Bar (unless she's out of the real thing, in which case, any candy bar is welcome!) Once you get into tasting chocolate for its own flavors, it's tough to go back to milk products. But by the same token, it's true that some chocolates work in some recipes and other, even "better" chocolates don't. For example, if you've ever attempted to create a malted milk truffle, you've found that it's a lovely thing with milk or white chocolate, but with dark chocolate, the malt creates conflict. And while some people love dark chocolate on fruit, others prefer white chocolate: its creamy flavor accents the fruit but without competing with it.

In an ideal world, you can use all types of chocolate to better your life! Consider frosting a devil's food cake with white chocolate ganache for a gorgeous display of black-n-white. Layer three different ganaches (white, milk, then dark) into a small parfait glass for a beautiful dessert. Make your own black and white cookies by dipping a giant sugar cookie into dark chocolate, then coat the opposite side with white. Make your chocolate covered strawberries into a sensation by varying their chocolate coatings.