This month’s theme of #TuesdayTips is all about chocolate. Valentines day is right around the corner, which is one of the biggest days for chocolate sales. I mean who doesn’t love chocolate right? Okay theres always the select few but to all you chocolate lovers out there, this is for you.

In the Chocolate industry, we tae about different types of chocolate. Yes there is still Dark, Milk and White but there are a few you make not know about and what their used for.

Dark chocolate is produced using a higher percentage of cocoa with all fat content coming from cocoa butter instead of milk, but there are also “dark milk” chocolates and many degrees of hybrids. Dark chocolate can be eaten as is, or used in cooking, for which thicker baking bars, usually with high cocoa percentages ranging from 70% to 100%, are sold. Baking chocolate containing no added sugar may be labeled “unsweetened chocolate”.

Semisweet and bittersweet are terms for dark chocolate traditionally used in the United States to indicate the amount of added sugar. Typically, bittersweet chocolate has less sugar than semisweet chocolate, but the two are interchangeable when baking. Both must contain a minimum of 35% cocoa solids; many brands now print on the package the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate.

Couverture chocolate is a high-quality class of chocolate, containing a high percentage of cocoa solids that includes a higher percentage of cocoa butter than other chocolate, and precisely tempered. Couverture chocolate is used by professionals for dipping, coating, molding and garnishing (‘couverture’ means ‘covering’ in French). Popular brands of couverture chocolate used by pastry chefs include: Valrhona, Lindt & Sprüngli, Scharffen Berger, Callebaut, and Guittard.

White chocolate is made of sugar, milk, and cocoa butter, without the cocoa solids. It is pale ivory coloured, and lacks many of the compounds found in milk and dark chocolates. It remains solid at room temperature as that is below the melting point of cocoa butter.

Ruby chocolate is a type of chocolate created by Barry Callebaut. The variety was in development from 2004, and was released to the public in 2017. The chocolate type is made from the Ruby cocoa bean, resulting in a distinct red colour and a different flavour, described as “sweet yet sour”.

Raw chocolate is chocolate that has not been processed, heated, or mixed with other ingredients. It is sold in chocolate-growing countries, and to a much lesser extent in other countries, often promoted as healthy.

Compound chocolate is the name for a confection combining cocoa with other vegetable fat, usually tropical fats or hydrogenated fats, as a replacement for cocoa butter. It is often used for candy bar coatings. In many countries it may not legally be called “chocolate”.

Modeling chocolate is a chocolate paste made by melting chocolate and combining it with corn syrup, glucose syrup, or golden syrup. It is primarily used by cakemakers and pâtisseries to add decoration to cakes and pastries.

Cocoa powder is the pulverized cocoa solids left after extracting almost all the cocoa butter. It is used to add chocolate flavour in baking, and for making chocolate drinks. There are two types of unsweetened cocoa powder: natural cocoa produced by the Broma process, with no additives, and Dutch process cocoa, which is additionally processed with alkali to neutralize its natural acidity. Natural cocoa is light in colour and somewhat acidic, and is commonly used in recipes that also use baking soda; as baking soda is an alkali, combining it with natural cocoa creates a leavening action that allows the batter to rise during baking. Dutch cocoa is slightly milder in taste, with a darker colour. It is frequently used for chocolate drinks such as hot chocolate due to its ease in blending with liquids. However, Dutch processing destroys most of the flavonoids present in cocoa.

So now we broke down the types of chocolate. Unfortunately, there are imposters Among them. Candy Melts, Almond Bark and Melting Wafers are NOT chocolate. They were created to look and sort of taste like chocolate and making the candy process easier for home bakers. Majority of the Cocoa Bombs you see aren’t using real chocolate. Anyway, its important to know which time of chocolate to use for what you plan on making. If you are making Chocolate Bars or Molding chocolate, you will need to make sure its tempered, which is what we will cover next week. Cocoa Powder does not. Semi Sweet can be used for the Chocolate Bars in which case you will temper but it is mostly used as chocolate chips for cookies and brownies.