Why Is Dark Chocolate Bitter?

Why Is Dark Chocolate Bitter?                        

When people proclaim their love for chocolate, they are usually talking about milk chocolate – you know the one you can buy off the shelf at the nearest grocery store in your neighbourhood because it has the right balance of that cocoa richness and a sugary hit. A bar of dark chocolate is unlikely to elicit the same mushy response from even the most ardent chocolate lovers. The reason? It tastes bitter!

Well, dark chocolate does have an unmistakable bitter overtone, which makes it somewhat of an acquired taste. But what contributes toward this bitter taste?
High On Cocoa Content

A simple explanation for this would be the high cocoa content in dark chocolates. In case of more popular alternatives such as white or milk chocolate, the sugar content is much higher than cocoa solids. However, in case of dark chocolate, these proportions are nearly reversed, with a high content of cocoa being mixed with abysmally small percentage of fat or sugar. This cocoa-sugar ratio is solely responsible for the bitter taste of dark chocolate.
Not All Dark Chocolate Is Created Equal

Even though a high cocoa content is inherent to dark chocolate, you may find some have a rather subtle hint of bitterness while others are downright revoltingly bitter. This is because dark chocolate too comes in varying concentrations of cocoa. Typically, dark chocolate bars can have anywhere between 35 percent to up to 100 percent cocoa content.

The ones with lower cocoa content are prepared with cocoa solids and cocoa butter, while the one with 100 percent cocoa are unsweetened variants without any other additive or ingredient. The latter is primarily used for cooking and not eaten whole. Even dark chocolates with up to 80 percent cocoa concentration can come across as especially bitter, which can put off anyone who associates chocolate with that sweet taste and velvety texture.

Finding The Right Dark Chocolate

The next time you feel up for experimenting with some new variants of chocolate, try shopping in the dark chocolate aisle. The trick is simple, begin with a dark chocolate with a relatively moderate cocoa content – 35 to 40 per cent – and take it up gradually, and you will soon begin to savour that hit of bitterness and appreciate the natural flavours of chocolate a whole lot more.

To make sure you are picking the right kind of chocolate to start off with, invest some time in reading the label:

• The cocoa percentage is usually specified on the front of the wrappers. Even if you find a dark chocolate with the cocoa concentration you are looking for, spend time on reading the label anyway.
• A good quality dark chocolate must have cocoa or chocolate liquor as its first (or primary) ingredient. For the uninitiated, chocolate liquor is the paste obtained from grinding cocoa nibs. It contains no alcohol.

Cocoa nibs, cocoa powder and cocoa butter are a few other ingredients that may feature on the label.

• Since sugar is only added to dark chocolate with a view to balance out its bitterness, it must not feature as the first ingredient on the label. If a dark chocolate bar has sugar as its primary ingredient, be sure to give it a miss. It is NOT dark chocolate.

It is easy for anyone with a compulsive sweet tooth to write off dark chocolate altogether, but once you develop a taste for it, there is no looking back. Dark chocolate is also touted to be packed with anti-oxidants that have numerous health benefits, and is exceptionally low of calories. That definitely calls for some guilt free binging.