Chocolate Is Healthy

As we repeatedly profess, raw, organic chocolate is the healthiest and most nutritionally-rich form of chocolate. Other types of chocolate?  Well, let’s just say the benefits take the form of satisfaction and taste, rather than health value.

With so many other types of chocolate appearing on supermarket shelves, here’s an overview of chocolates and their uses.  In general, the less processed the chocolate is, the more nutrition it contains.

1. Bitter (unsweetened) chocolate has no sugar added and, a small amount of cocoa butter.  Despite not having sweetening, it’s taste and mouth feel can still, surprisingly, be satisfying.

2. Bittersweet (semi-sweet) chocolate contains sugar, more cocoa butter than bitter chocolate, and about 50% chocolate liquor, which is made from processed cacao beans.

3. Cocoa powder – This is actually the pulverized remains of cocoa butter and is commonly used in baking.

4. Couverture – A rich chocolate containing a high level of cocoa butter, making it particularly creamy.  It’s typically used in cake decorating and candy making.

5. Dutch process cocoa powder – A cocoa powder processed with alkali, it has a delicate flavor and is used in cakes and pastries.  This alkalization process makes it neutral, so recipes using Dutch Process cocoa powder call for an acidic ingredient such as baking powder.

6. Milk chocolate – This popular type of chocolate contains condensed or powdered milk. Only a small amount of cocoa is required to make it milk chocolate.  It is the most-consumed variety of chocolate due to its presence in candy bars and some desserts.

7. White chocolate – Containing the highest amount of sugar of all chocolate varieties, white chocolate is also made from milk fats and solids.  It is not considered to be actual chocolate and with little to no cocoa solids, doesn’t offer vitamins or minerals.

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Tags: bittersweet chocolate, chocolate liquor, cocoa powder, couverture, dutch process cocoa powder, milk chocolate, sugar chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, white chocolate

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 9:51 am and is filed under Chocolate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.