Picture this: You pick up a beautiful bar of craft chocolate. The flavours appeal to you but certain terms on the label confuse you. What does ‘single origin’ mean? How does cocoa butter impact the mouthfeel? And what does the percentage on the packaging indicate? Here’s your primer on the terms that you’ll hear in the world of craft chocolate.

Bean-to-bar: It’s a process by which the chocolate maker has control over each step – sourcing raw beans of the finest origins from cacao farms in India and around the world, sorting them once they arrive at the small-batch factory, roasting, grinding and ultimately, creating the delicious chocolate bar. Each step entails a lot of care, precision and supervision. And there are no shortcuts. Certain craft chocolate labels also use the term ‘tree-to-bar’ implying that the creators grow the beans themselves.

Check out La Folie’s bean-to-bar process here.

Cocoa butter: Once the beans are roasted, they’re cracked open to unveil the cocoa nibs. The healthy, saturated and antioxidant-rich fat extracted by grinding the nibs is the cocoa butter. Retaining some of the flavour and aroma of the bean, the butter is added back to the chocolate-making process. It helps elevate the silken smooth texture and melt-in-your-mouth quality of the chocolate bar.

  

  

Three-Ingredient Chocolate: The craft chocolate world largely comprises two kinds of makers, those who create three-ingredient chocolates and some who craft two-ingredient ones. At La Folie, you’ll find three-ingredient chocolates that comprise cacao, organic cane sugar and cocoa butter. There are no emulsifiers or additives of any kind. Meanwhile, two-ingredient chocolate manufacturers mainly work with only cacao and sugar. 

Cacao Percentage: Highlighted on the packaging, this number indicates the amount of actual cacao and parts thereof, that are present in the chocolate bar by weight. It denotes the bar’s flavour intensity and sweetness. However, even if two bars feature the same cacao percentage, they may vary in their flavour intensity depending on the bean varieties.

Shop our bean to bar chocolates here.

Also read 'sugar alternatives to make chocolates healthier'