How do you recognize good chocolate?

Strange as it sounds: A good and high quality chocolate recognizes a layman first in the price. Good chocolate does not exist for cents, because the processed ingredients and the type of production cost many times what is in the cheap chocolates available everywhere. A good product can cost several euros per board.

The cocoa bean

The most important ingredient of a chocolate is cocoa. The expert distinguishes so-called Consumer cocoa of premium cocoa, The latter come from regions that provide certain conditions for the growth of the cocoa bean, especially light without direct sunlight. Only a few countries are eligible for this. The most important production areas for high-quality cocoa are Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and a few Latin American countries. For a good chocolate, the country of origin of the cocoa bean is on the packaging.

other important ingredients:

Apart from the cocoa bean, a few ingredients are still part of the chocolate. They differ significantly from the cheap types of consumption for a good variety. In a high-quality chocolate are beside the cocoa bean usually exclusively real cocoa butter and sugar processed.
Consumer chocolate consists of a variety of ingredients, especially flavors that are intended to fool an intense chocolate flavor. If the first ingredient in the pack is sugar, the chocolate can not be good. If flavors, butterfat and emulsifiers are mentioned in addition, the chocolate is equally lacking in quality.

Cocoa content and preparation

The cocoa content of a chocolate also says something about the quality. Basically, the higher the cocoa content, the darker the chocolate. However, chocolate chocolate can still contain up to 50 percent cocoa in a quality chocolate. The proportion is always stated on the package.
The preparation is crucial. With a good chocolate, a complex manufacturing process has taken place. The chocolate was left alone fermented and freed of tannins. Then she was at a certain temperature conciert, a process in which the bitter substances are removed from the chocolate mass and flavors have time to unfold.

The taste

Basically, the taste buds decide what a good chocolate is. It is always exciting to subject two to three varieties of different price and quality levels to a blind tasting. A high-quality chocolate can be recognized by the intense chocolate aroma. Artificial flavors do not reach this end of the taste experience. If you want to try this out and share your experience, you are cordially invited.

A simple test for checking the quality of your chocolate | April 2024