Chocolate > Composition > Definitions > Ingredients

Ingredients

There are several key ingredients that are used to make all chocolate.  They are listed and described below.

Chocolate Liquor:  Produced by the grinding of the cocoa bean pieces or nibs to a smooth liquid state.  Chocolate liquor may also be referred to as chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, baking chocolate, or bitter chocolate. Despite its name “liquor”, there is no alcohol content.

Cocoa Butter:  The edible fat from cocoa beans, either roasted or unroasted, obtained  typically by mechanical pressing but sometimes other extraction methods are used.  The common source for cocoa butter that is used in chocolate is by high pressure pressing of roasted, shell-free cocoa nibs.

Nutritive Sweeteners:  High grade sugar, otherwise known as sucrose, that is dry and free of monosaccharide breakdown products should be used to make chocolate.  The presence of moisture and different forms of carbohydrates can cause difficulty with various chocolate processing steps. 

Milk Products:  Either whole milk powder or non-fat milk powder can be used to make milk chocolate.  Another ingredient used by some manufacturers is milk crumb, which is made by evaporating and condensing liquid milk with heat and vacuum in the presence of a small amount of chocolate liquor to form a dry crumb that can be stored and used as an ingredient to make milk chocolate.

Emulsifiers:  The most common emulsifier is soy lecithin and is used in very small amounts (<1%) to reduce chocolate viscosity and improve the manufacturing process.