How Chof Understands Chocolate
Chof explains chocolate through ingredients, maker transparency, cacao origin, certifications and tasting context.
How Chof Rates Chocolate
Chof rates chocolate on visible product signals: the ingredient list, origin transparency and how much of the process the maker documents.
Chocolate Ingredients to Check
Check for vegetable fats, vanillin, excess emulsifiers, vague flavourings and long ingredient lists when comparing chocolate bars.
Bean-to-Bar vs Industrial Chocolate
Bean-to-bar chocolate is made from cacao beans by the maker, usually in small batches with named origins; industrial chocolate is made at scale from bulk cocoa for consistency, availability and price.
Organic, Fairtrade and Direct Trade Chocolate
Organic is about production standards, Fairtrade is a certification system, and direct trade describes a maker buying cacao through a closer trading relationship.
Real vs Compound Chocolate
Real chocolate uses cocoa butter as its fat; compound chocolate replaces some or all of that cocoa butter with cheaper vegetable fats such as palm, shea or coconut oil. Turn the bar over: if the ingredients list cocoa butter and no added vegetable fat, it is real chocolate.
How Chof writes its guides
Guides on Chof are drafted and researched with AI tools. Felipe checks the sources and the citations, and any tasting note in his name is his own.
Bar and maker descriptions are generated from the catalogue record and public pages, and not all of them have been reviewed by hand.
Makers can't pay to change a score or a ranking. Verified makers can appear more often where Chof features bars, such as the app's Featured section and the home page of this site, but never with a higher score or a higher place in a ranking.
If a fact is wrong, email felipe@chof.nl.