Chocolate styles, origins and product categories
This domain tests product literacy: the categories chocolate is sold in, how they are made and named, and what claims such as couverture, single estate, bean-to-bar and ruby actually promise.
By cocoa content and ingredients
Dark chocolate is cocoa mass, cocoa butter and sugar, commonly 55-85%; higher percentages mean less sugar and more cocoa solids, but not automatically more aroma. Milk chocolate adds milk powder or condensed milk; milk fat softens the crystal structure, so it is tempered lower. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids but no non-fat cocoa. Ruby chocolate, launched commercially in 2017, is made from specially processed, acidified beans and has a natural pink hue: it is a process, not a variety and not an added colour. Blonde or caramelised white chocolate is white chocolate held at roughly 100-120 degrees C so that Maillard reactions give toffee notes.
By function
Couverture is high-cocoa-butter chocolate, often 31-38% fat, designed for tempering, moulding and enrobing. Compound or coating uses vegetable fat and needs no tempering. Gianduja is chocolate with at least 30% hazelnut paste; pralines are filled chocolates.
By sourcing and process
Single origin means one country or region; single estate means one farm; bean-to-bar means the maker controls the process from bean to bar; craft is a small-scale descriptor, not a legal term; fine flavour is an ICCO classification applied to countries and beans, not to a finished bar. Raw chocolate uses unroasted or lightly roasted beans, which preserves acidity and green notes but can carry microbiological risk.
Worked example. A 45% dark milk bar snaps softly and looks matte. That is expected: milk fat lowers the melting point and needs tempering near 29-30 degrees C, and the low cocoa content means less cocoa butter structure. It is a tempering failure only if it shows streaks or greasiness.
Traps. Assuming craft or bean-to-bar means better; reading ruby as a botanical variety; expecting a 100% bar to be inedibly bitter (it is intense but can be fruity); confusing couverture with compound; treating single origin as proof of traceability.