How Chocolate is Made and the Parts of Chocolate

Another important thing to know when selecting healthy chocolate -- or ANY chocolate for that matter -- is the role that the different parts of chocolate play. This can help you to understand the quality of chocolate that you're buying.

Remember, all chocolate is made from cacao, which is highly nutritional and is the basis of any health claims made about chocolate. In the process of making chocolate, cacao beans are fermented, dried, and roasted before having their shells removed, leaving you with cacao nibs. (Raw beans can also be shelled for raw cacao nibs, which you can eat directly. They're bitter, however.)

These are then ground and liquified into cocoa liquor (or liqueur; also known as chocolate liquor), which can be further processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The cocoa solids are the non-fat portion of chocolate, and can be sold separately as cocoa powder. This portion tends to provide chocolate's traditional flavor and color, and carries more of the antioxidants from the cacao.

The fat portion of chocolate is the cocoa butter. This tends to provide the silky consistency of good chocolate.

Real chocolate is made with cocoa butter added to cocoa liquor (containing all the content from the cacao nibs) and/or cocoa powder, in addition to other ingredients (usually including sugar, which is counter-intuitive in healthy chocolate). So all chocolate contains both cocoa solids (or powder) and cocoa butter in it, although some leave the cocoa solids in their more natural state -- in the cocoa liquor.

Missing Ingredients

Unlike true chocolate, white chocolate does not have cocoa solids in it -- it's made of cocoa butter, sugar, and milk. This is why it lacks the traditional chocolate color and flavor (and antioxidants), but DOES have a traditional chocolate texture.

Meanwhile, there are also low-grade "chocolates" that use some degree of chocolate solids but reduce or eliminate the cocoa butter by adding partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils. This saves the manufacturer money, which means it's cheap for you to buy. But you pay with your health, as partially-hydrogenated oils cause a wreck in the body. Real chocolate lovers would NOT consider this real chocolate; and indeed, the FDA does not currently allow any product with substituted oils, artificial sweeteners, or milk substitutes to be called chocolate. (Though certain corporations are fighting this.)

This basic understanding of cocoa liquor (or chocolate liquor), cocoa solids, and cocoa butter is important when looking at the ingredients of a chocolate that you're interested to try, because it helps you to know what's included in a chocolate, and to what degree (relative to other ingredients). A couple more terms to know:

"Unsweetened chocolate" should refer to baking chocolate, which is solidified cocoa liquor (containing both cocoa solids and cocoa butter).

"Cocoa" refers to a combination of cocoa solids and cocoa butter, but it doesn't say how much of each is included.

If you've read "The Facts" in order, this page concludes my list of basic facts needed for weeding through good and bad "healthy chocolates." But there's one thing I'd like to cover: how to read chocolate labels.