Chocolate Glossary
Plain-language definitions for chocolate terms used across Chof.
Bean-to-Bar Chocolate
Bean-to-bar chocolate is made by a maker who works from raw cacao beans all the way to the finished bar.
Cacao Fermentation
Cacao fermentation is what happens to fresh cacao beans in their own sugary pulp after the pod is opened, usually over five to seven days. Yeasts, lactic acid bacteria and then acetic acid bacteria feed on the pulp in overlapping waves, the mass heats to 45 to 50 °C, the seed dies, and its own enzymes break proteins and sugar down into the amino acids and simple sugars that roasting turns into chocolate flavour.
Chocolatier
A chocolatier is someone who makes finished chocolate products, such as bars, bonbons and truffles, from chocolate that has already been made, usually professional couverture. A chocolate maker, by contrast, makes the chocolate itself from raw cacao beans.
Cocoa Percentage (Cacao %)
Cocoa percentage is the share of a bar's chocolate, by weight, that comes from cacao: cocoa mass, cocoa butter and any cocoa powder, counted together. The rest is sugar, milk and whatever else goes into the chocolate, so a 70% bar has at most 30% sugar.
Conching
Conching is a stage of chocolate making where the chocolate is slowly mixed and aerated, sometimes for hours or days, to smooth its texture and mellow harsh, acidic flavours.
Country of Origin (Chocolate)
On a craft chocolate bar, the country of origin is where the cacao beans were grown, not where the bar was made. A bar produced in Belgium from Peruvian cacao has Peru as its country of origin.
Craft Chocolate
Craft chocolate is chocolate made in small batches by makers who care about cacao sourcing, traceability and flavour, rather than mass-market scale.
Dark Milk Chocolate
Dark milk chocolate is milk chocolate made with a higher cocoa content than usual, often around 50 to 70%. It keeps the creaminess of milk chocolate but adds the depth and lower sweetness of a dark bar.
Dutch-Processed Cocoa
Dutch-processed cocoa is cocoa powder treated with an alkalising agent to cut acidity and darken it, and it goes into baking far more often than into a bar.
Fine-Flavour Cacao
Fine-flavour cacao (also called fine or flavour cacao) is a category recognised by the International Cocoa Organization for cacao with distinctive aromatic profiles, usually Criollo and Trinitario varieties. Most craft chocolate uses it, while industrial chocolate mostly uses bulk Forastero.
Multi-Origin Chocolate
Multi-origin chocolate is a bar blended from cacao grown in two or more countries. It is the opposite of a single-origin bar, which comes from one named place.
Single-Origin Chocolate
Single-origin chocolate means all the cacao comes from one named place: a single country, region, estate or farm, not an anonymous blend of many beans.
Tree-to-Bar Chocolate
Tree-to-bar chocolate is made by a maker whose cacao comes mostly from farms it, its group or its co-operative owns, and which makes the chocolate itself.