Chocolate Bars

A chocolate bar is tempered chocolate set in a mold, eaten plain or studded with nuts, fruit, salt or spices. In the EU, dark and milk bars must print a minimum cocoa solids percentage, which counts everything in the bar that came from the cacao bean.

How to choose Chocolate Bars

  • The percentage. A 70 percent bar is 70 percent cacao paste and added cocoa butter, and most of the other 30 percent is sugar. So the bigger the number, the less sweet and more bitter the bar tastes.
  • Bean origin. Most cacao grows within 10 degrees of the equator, north or south. A wrapper that names a country or region tells you where in that band the beans grew.
  • Plain or flavored. A plain bar shows off the beans and the roast. Nuts, fruit, salt or spices change the texture and the finish, and they also take up room that chocolate would fill.
  • Cocoa butter only. A short ingredient list of cacao, cocoa butter and sugar means no other fats. In Europe any added vegetable fat must be declared in bold.

About Chocolate Bars

Chocolate bars are molded blocks of chocolate, dark, milk or white, sweetened or not, sold whole for breaking into squares. Making one starts with roasting fermented, dried beans and winnowing off their shells.

The cracked nibs are ground into chocolate liquor, the plain paste of the bean. That paste is mixed with sugar and often more cocoa butter, refined until smooth, tempered, and poured into molds to set. Milk bars take dairy at the mixing stage, and white bars skip the paste and use cocoa butter, milk and sugar.

Store bars wrapped, in a cool and dry cupboard away from sunlight. To taste one properly, let a square sit on the tongue at room temperature and melt before chewing.

At a glance

Made from
Cacao paste or cocoa butter, usually sugar, sometimes milk
Main types
Milk, white, dark, flavored, single origin
Label terms
Cocoa percentage, bittersweet, semisweet, single origin

Chocolate Bars questions

What is the difference between bittersweet and semisweet chocolate?

Under US rules there is no fixed difference. Both names require at least 35 percent chocolate liquor, which is the ground paste of roasted cacao nibs, and the law treats them as one standard. A maker may call a bar either one, so the printed cocoa percentage tells you far more about sweetness than the name does.

How much milk does a milk bar have to contain?

In the United States, a milk bar needs at least 12 percent milk solids, at least 3.39 percent milkfat and at least 10 percent chocolate liquor. European rules ask for at least 14 percent dry milk solids and 25 percent total dry cocoa solids. A bittersweet bar needs 35 percent chocolate liquor under the same US rules, so a milk bar can legally hold far less cacao and taste milder.

Why does a good chocolate bar snap cleanly?

The snap comes from tempering, a careful cycle of cooling and warming that lines the cocoa butter up in an orderly crystal structure. That structure is what makes a bar firm and glossy and lets it melt smoothly in the mouth. A bar that bends, crumbles or looks streaky has lost that structure, usually from heat, though it is still safe to eat.

Sources: US standards for cacao products (21 CFR Part 163); EU cocoa and chocolate directive; International Cocoa Organization.

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