Dark chocolate
Dark chocolate, also known as plain chocolate and black chocolate, is a form of chocolate made from cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. It has a higher cocoa percentage than white chocolate and milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is valued for its health benefits, and for its reputation as a sophisticated choice of chocolate. Like milk and white chocolate, dark chocolate is used to make chocolate bars and to coat confectionery.
Dark chocolate gained much of its reputation in the late 20th century, as French chocolatiers worked to establish dark chocolate as preferred over milk chocolate in the French national palate. As this preference was exported to countries such as the United States, associated values of terroir, bean-to-bar chocolate making and gourmet chocolate followed. Because of the high cocoa percentage, dark chocolate can contain particularly high amounts of heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.
Compared to other types of chocolate, dark chocolate has a more bitter and intense flavor, and is more reliant on the quality of its cocoa beans and cocoa butter ingredients. Dark chocolate is made by a process of mixing, refining, conching, and standardizing. Government and industry standards of what may be labeled "dark chocolate" vary by country and market.
Terminology
In Britain, dark is also known as plain chocolate, although the term dark chocolate is now more common. It is known in East Asia as black chocolate, e.g. by the Japanese brand Ghana. Dark chocolates are sometimes categorized into sweet, semi-sweet, and bittersweet chocolate depending on the sugar content. Dark chocolate without added sugar is known as bitter chocolate or unsweetened chocolate.History
After the domestication of the cacao tree over 5000 years ago, indigenous Americans began producing cacao beverages. The earliest people known to have used the cacao plant are the ancient Mayo-Chinchipe people of what's now Ecuador in circa 3300 BC. While it is unclear when non-alcoholic cacao beverages were first consumed, some academics claim this occurred by 1650BC. Other academics claim this occurred by circa 1800 BC by ancient Olmec people of what's now Mexico and Central America. When the Spanish conquistadors first tasted chocolate around 1520, there were many different variations of cacao beverages, of which one, made in the Guatemala, was referred to as chocolate. After this area became a dominant producer of cacao in the later 16th century, chocolate became the word for all cacao drinks. Europeans adapted chocolate with Old World ingredients, including sugar, and after bringing it to Europe, it spread and became popular among the elite. Over the following centuries it became simpler and less spiced.In 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten received a patent for the manufacturing process for making Dutch cocoa, removing cocoa butter from cocoa liquor, and creating the potential for mass production. In 1847, the first modern chocolate bar was created by the British chocolate maker Fry's, and over the next century it would be improved with a series of new techniques including conching and tempering. With the invention of the modern milk chocolate in 1875, the term dark chocolate was coined to distinguish the traditional chocolate from the new form. By 1899 in the United States, dark chocolate was considered masculine and inappropriate for children. For much of the following century in the US, dark chocolate was consumed not by itself, but together with other foods such as ice cream, nuts, and coconut. During the World Wars, dark chocolate was fortified with vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D, niacin and sometimes calcium to prevent malnutrition. As of the 1930s in Britain, dark chocolate was being sold in thin portions, and was sold for taste rather than taste and hunger as was done for milk chocolate. That decade, chocolate makers there began associating their dark chocolate products with upper-class women in their advertising. This was a response to market research of the time claiming dark chocolate was favored by the higher social classes, compared to a working class who preferred milk chocolate.
During the late 1970s, when the price of cocoa was very low, the palate of French connoisseurs moved strongly in favor of dark chocolates and against milk chocolate after advocacy from the chocolatier Robert Linxe. At the same time, some American consumers began to take interest in dark chocolates for the first time, often sourcing product from France and Belgium. The following decade, a nationwide campaign in France aimed to move the public to appreciate locally produced dark chocolates with sophisticated flavor. Taste makers and producers worked together to create flavor standards using concepts borrowed from wine connoisseurship. This was motivated by foreign firms capturing swathes of the French confectionary market at the expense of local chocolatiers. Simultaneously, high-quality dark chocolate began to be attributed psychoactive and possible aphrodisiac qualities due to its theobromine content. In America, broader recognition of dark as distinct from milk chocolate, and of the concepts of bean origin and the percentage of cocoa in the finished product, arose in the years following 1984, when the French chocolate manufacturer Valrhona entered the US market, selling initially to pastry and chocolate manufacturers and later to the general public.
In the 1990s, French flavor standards, having gained mass uptake domestically, were intentionally exported to the United States. These standards, laid out in published guides and chocolate tastings, evoked terroir, bean varietals and estate growths. Chocolate of high cocoa content and novel added flavors was promoted and was sold at significantly higher cost than what had previously been consumed. By the late 2000s, a preference for dark chocolate was seen as the sign of a "discriminating palate" in the United States.
Characteristics
Dark chocolate is harder than milk chocolate, because of its particle size and fat and lecithin content. It also has a more bitter and intense flavor than milk chocolate, due to a higher proportion of cocoa mass, which contains theobromine, caffeine, l-leucine, and catechin flavonoids. Compared to other types of chocolate, dark relies more on the quality of cocoa beans, and the most highly flavored cocoa butters are reserved for dark chocolates. Dark chocolate can exhibit burnt, chocolate, smoky, nutty and sour flavors, among others. These variations are particularly noticeable among dark chocolates using single-origin cocoa beans. While the appeal of the taste of sugary, milky milk chocolate is often immediately apparent, dark chocolate's more complex flavors can make it more of an acquired taste. Perceptions of the intensity of flavor are correlated with color: darker chocolates are understood to have a more intense flavor.Dark chocolate contains 60 compounds contributing to its flavor, with 33 of these considered particularly important. Basic and neutral compounds are responsible for a "chocolate" flavor, while acidic compounds contribute more sweet flavors. Some of these compounds are the product of Maillard reactions. Some manufacturers age dark chocolate to improve flavor. This is done at a minimum for a few weeks, and it is debated whether ageing for more time is desirable. The antioxidants in cocoa solids are responsible for preserving chocolate; dark chocolate has a shelf life of about two years, longer than milk chocolate, which contains not only fewer antioxidants but perishable milkfat. Dark chocolate can range in color from mahogany to black.
Health effects
Nutrition
Nutrients in dark chocolate include 46% carbohydrates, 43% fats, 8% protein, and 1% water. In a reference serving, dark chocolate provides of food energy, and is a rich source of several dietary minerals, including copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.Research
While dark chocolate is popularly considered a health food, only limited high-quality clinical research has been conducted to evaluate the effects of compounds found in cocoa on physiological outcomes, such as blood pressure, for which only small changes resulted from short-term, high consumption of chocolate up to 105 grams and 670 milligrams of flavonols per day. A recent 2024 study though, showed that those who consumed more than five servings a week of dark chocolate had about 20% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.Flavanols found in dark chocolate include the monomers catechin and epicatechin, and the polymeric procyanidins, which remain under laboratory research. Flavanols break down as cocoa beans are fermented, roasted and treated with the Dutch process. To consume enough cocoa flavanols for the presumed effects claimed in some limited studies requires eating at least around of dark chocolate a day, which also involves intake of significant amounts of sugar and saturated fats. The chocolate industry, and in particular Mars, Inc., has funded research to promote chocolate as a health food. As of 2018, Mars had funded more than 150 studies into cocoa flavanols since the 1980s. That year, they said they would no longer try to imply chocolate is a health food.
A 2021 systematic review of the health effects of chocolate and cocoa found high-quality research had still not been performed to evaluate physiological outcomes. The only health effects observed were improvements in lipid profiles; control subjects showed no significant differences in terms of skin, cardiovascular, anthropometric, cognitive and quality of life outcomes.
Metal content
Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, may contain appreciable levels of toxic heavy metals, such as cadmium, which may be present naturally in the soil of cocoa plantations, particularly in Latin America. For products containing over 50% cocoa, the European Commission has set a limit for cadmium of 0.8mg/kg, while for chocolate containing between 30%–50% cocoa, the limit is 0.3mg/kg. After these limits came into enforcement in 2019, similar regulations were enforced in other jurisdictions across the world. The state of California recommends a maximum daily intake of 4.1 micrograms of cadmium.A 2024 report analyzing dark chocolate and cocoa samples in the United States from 2014 to 2022 found that multiple samples exceeded Prop 65 levels for heavy metals: 43% of samples exceeding levels for lead, and 35% exceeding levels for cadmium. However, a 2024 study published in Food Research International found that high metal content in dark chocolate may pose health concerns mainly only for children.