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Product
Unsweetened
Semisweet
Sweet
Fat content
55 %
40-50 %
35 %
Cocoa
10-25 %
Cocoa powder available in retail has varying amounts of fat content in the 10 to 22 percent
range. Most of the common brands of cocoa you buy in the grocery store has 10 percent but
restaurant and institutions tend to use the higher fat-content cocoa for richer, more satisfying hot
cocoa drinks.
Today, with our increased awareness of the detrimental consequences of too much fat,
processors can remove almost all of the cocoa butter, allowing packagers to label some of the
chocolate cookies and other chocolate goodies as low-fat or fat-free.
Chocolate terms
The name German chocolate (the Baker's Chocolate Company's trade mark) does not refer
to the country of its origin but to the name of the person who developed a process of conditioning
the chocolate against heat.
The other term you see commonly on supermarket packaging is dutch cocoa, that is the
same as dutch process cocoa. This term does refer to Holland, where they first introduced
"dutching" of cocoa powder. This is a process to change the cocoa to have a darker color, richer
tone and better solubility. However, the process also makes the flavor milder. To dutch cocoa, they
boil the cocoa bean nibs in a 2 percent potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate solution before
processing. This changes the pH of the cocoa from slightly acidic (its natural state) to neutral or
slightly alkaline. Cocoa that is not subjected to this process is called natural process cocoa in the
trade. You may also come across the term European-style cocoa. This is the same as dutched
cocoa.
What about white chocolate? Its popularity is on the rise in food-trendy groups. You
probably didn’t know, but this product is not chocolate at all, just the fat part of cocoa beans without
the chocolate, to which they add milk solids and sugar—not much more than fat and sugar, in other
words. The reason for its popularity is strictly in its unusual appearance—a chocolate-flavored
product that is white.
Strictly and technically speaking, it shouldn't be called chocolate. In fact, next time you are
shopping, check this—the product you buy as white chocolate on grocery store shelves they call
"white baking bar," and cocoa butter is not even one of the listed ingredients. The fat is usually palm
kernel oil, a much cheaper ingredient, along with a variety of added chemicals and flavorings. I ban
it from my kitchen.
Chocolate and cocoa storage
Cocoa butter (the fat in cocoa beans) has a remarkably long shelf life. Among its numerous
ingredients, chocolate beans include potent natural anti-oxidants (polyphenolic compounds) that
protect the cocoa fats from rancidity. You may store chocolate and cocoa for years (some say
indefinitely) without any deterioration in quality. Hershey’s scientists claim that after two or more
years baking chocolate loses some of its flavor and may even have some rancid flavor notes. To be
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