"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."

The best moments in everyone's life definitely include chocolate. But very few of us are aware of the different types of chocolate. The variety of chocolate depends on the chocolate making process and composition.

Everyone has their deary flavor in chocolates. But, how well do people know about their preferred flavors of chocolate?

What parameters distinguish the types of chocolates?

Let's find everything in detail here!

5 Common Types of Chocolates

Chocolates are broadly classified into 5 types:

• Dark Chocolate
• Milk Chocolate
• White Chocolate
• Bittersweet Chocolate
• Unsweetened Chocolate

Dark Chocolate

Needless to give an introduction to this exotic variety of chocolate. Dark chocolate is obviously one of the popular types of chocolate across the world. It is the closest form to pure cocoa. It is often termed plain or semisweet chocolate as no additives were included in its making. Nonetheless, it is evidently less sweet than milk chocolate.

Dark chocolate is highly considered for baking, especially when your recipe requires a rich, chocolaty flavor. It is widely acclaimed for its exceptional health benefits.

(Check out our article explaining the 5 Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate.)

With typically three ingredients, the dark chocolate composition is relatively simple. It is purely made of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter and sugar. At times, small amounts of vanilla and soy lecithin, as an emulsifier will be added. As per FDA standards, dark chocolate must contain a minimum of 15% chocolate liquor and can go up to 50%. These are mostly vegan-friendly chocolates as it doesn't contain added dairy. At La Folie we make our chocolate with three ingredients in the most natural form using a plant based emulsifier sunflower lecithin and nothing else. Our cocoa beans are sourced using ethical transparent trade practices directly from farms and cooperatives, hence our cocoa beans, unrefined cane sugar and naturally processes cocoa butter are completely organic.

Recommended by La Folie – India single origin 72%

Milk Chocolate

Arguably, milk chocolate is the second most popular chocolate variety. With its creamy texture and sweet flavor, it is widely appreciated by people across boundaries. Irrespective of its name, this classic chocolate is light brown in color. It is peculiarly sweeter compared to dark chocolate, but not quite sweet as white chocolate.

It is popular across the countries for its creamier and milder taste. Thus, it can be used for baking especially in a recipe that requires milder chocolaty flavor. It is widely used in chocolate waffles and celebration cakes.

Typical milk chocolate is a perfect combination of chocolate liquor, sugar, and milk. To enhance its smoothness, soy lecithin will be added as an emulsifier at times. As per FDA standards, milk chocolate must contain a minimum of 10% chocolate liquor and 12% of milk. At La Folie we have 2 kinds of milk chocolate, one which is vegan made with organic coconut sugar and organic coconut milk powder and the other made with caramelised milk crumb, giving a smooth velvety caramel notes in our milk chocolate. We add in more than 35% of cocoa beans, which is more than the recommended  FDA, standard, hence making our milk chocolate more healthy with high % of cocoa beans and less % of cane sugars.

Recommended by La Folie – India Single Origin chocolate bar and Guatemala Single Origin chocolate bar.

White Chocolate

What's whiter than an Ivory? It's white chocolate! It is quite simple to identify white chocolate because of its white color and creamy texture. With bold notes of sweetened milk and vanilla, white chocolate often has a predominantly higher sweet profile. The rich, soft, creamy texture of these chocolates comes from a cocoa butter base, high sugar, and milk content.

A perfect blend of sugar, cocoa butter, milk, vanilla, and lecithin results in delicious white chocolate. These ingredients are the sole reason behind its sweet vanilla aroma. As per FDA, white chocolate must contain a minimum of 20% cocoa butter and 14% of milk. The sugar shouldn't exceed 55% in order to meet the FDA standards.

There is some debate about whether white chocolate is chocolate or not. Most of the chocolatiers don't consider it as chocolate as it must contain at least 20% cocoa butter to be contemplated as a chocolate product. As far as La Folie is concerned, as long as it has some element of the beautiful cocoa bean (cocoa butter in this case) we're happy to keep eating.

Bittersweet Chocolate

As the name states, it is quite bitter in taste compared to dark, white, and milk chocolates. People started learning about cacao and cocoa percentages recently. As a result, bittersweet chocolate has gained a bit of attraction. It is also referred to as extra-dark chocolate. Consuming bittersweet chocolate is beneficial to health in many ways as cocoa content is more than 70% in it.

The rise in bean-to-bar chocolate and craft chocolate laid a significant path in increasing the demand for bittersweet chocolate. Depending on where the cacao is grown, the bittersweet chocolate's flavor may differ.

Bittersweet chocolate is typically made of chocolate liquor and less sugar. As per FDA standards, bittersweet and semisweet chocolates must contain more than 35% of chocolate liquor. However, typical bittersweet chocolate contains 66% or higher cocoa content. The  cane sugar added will be less than one-third of the total content.

At La Folie, we love pairing our 65% dark bittersweet chocolate with different concoctions such as dried green mango, naga chilli, kelagur coffee, other spices and nuts such as pistachio, rose petals, cardamom and pink pepper corn. we also actively blend different single origins to make the best pairing for our chocolate bars with particular profile of recipe in mind.

Recommended by La Folie – 65% maple almond chocolate bar or the 72% Crunchy Cocoa Nib.

Unsweetened Chocolate

Unsweetened chocolate, often referred to as baking chocolate. It’s pure chocolate liquor, made of cocoa beans, with no additional ingredients added. Although it looks and smells like chocolate, it has a bitter taste and is not meant for consumption on its own. It is best used in cooking when it can be combined with sugar to make it more palatable. 

With its deep, rich chocolate flavor, unsweetened chocolate serves as a base of most of the other types of chocolate except white chocolate. This thick, dark brown paste separates into cocoa butter and cocoa powder under high pressure. Regardless of its name, it doesn't contain any alcohol.

According to the FDA, unsweetened chocolate must contain at least 50% cocoa butter with the remaining ingredients made up of only cocoa solids from the finely ground cocoa nibs. Cocoa nibs are dry-roasted pieces of the bean. 

Coming soon at La Folie : The adventure bar 90% dark

Now, you got to know the different types of chocolates. Go ahead and satiate your chocolate cravings with La Folie's exquisite collection of chocolate bars online.