Four Chocolate Questions Answered

Boyle, who also is the author of The Cake Book and writes the blog Tish Boyle’s Sweet Dreams, says dark chocolate in particular has been getting a lot of attention recently because of its “perceived health benefits—think antioxidants and flavanols—and because of its intense flavor profile. Consumers are looking for premium, high cacao-content chocolates, and manufacturers are actively marketing these percentages, pushing the envelope with ultra-bitter 85 and even 90 percent chocolates.” Until now, most chocolate lovers required dark chocolate that was 65 to 70 percent cocoa solids—the cocoa butter and dry cocoa particles in the chocolate—so chocolate that is 90 percent cocoa solids is a much more intense experience.

As well as making chocolates that are very dark indeed, manufacturers are indicating the country of origin for the cacao bean on the label. Not surprisingly, the countries with the most panache are not those that produce the bulk of the beans, but others, such as Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, and some Caribbean islands.

3. Why do some chocolates cost so much more than others? Although chocolate is an “affordable luxury” in a general sense, some brands demand a king’s ransom.

Much like coffee beans, cocoa beans are sold by commodity markets. The global price of chocolate spiked in the 1970s, after which it declined a little, only to recover somewhat in the early ’90s. Prices have never reached the highs of the 1970s, but they have remained pretty constant since the 1990s.

But why is it possible to buy a Hershey Bar for a little more than a buck, and yet indulging in a pound of Noka Vintages Collection truffles can set you back more than $850? In large part, the difference comes down to production methods. When Milton Hershey made his first Hershey bars at the turn of the last century, he took a page from Henry Ford’s playbook and produced them using an assembly line—a system still practiced today but with far more modern technology. On the other hand, Noka chocolates and others of their ilk are handcrafted and use only the most expensive chocolate.

To understand the wide range of prices, it’s necessary to know a little about how chocolate is made. It’s a complicated process that begins with how the beans are grown, harvested, fermented, dried, blended, roasted, and then made into chocolate. All of these steps contribute to the final cost to the consumer, and because chocolate makers are an exacting breed, they tend to be demanding. They begin with the bean—much as coffee buyers do—and judge the quality of their product on the way it’s handled from there.

When the cocoa beans are roasted, their shells crack to expose the nib, which is then ground into a thick paste. A little more than 50 percent of the paste is cocoa butter, which is extracted and saved to add to the chocolate later. The paste, now called chocolate liquor or chocolate mass, is rolled to refine the particle size and then ingredients are added in varying amounts, depending on the desired final outcome: cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids.