Chocolate Education

Just in case you are a little confused. When a chocolate has 70% cacao content, that means that the chocolate has 70% cocoa mass and cocoa butter the rest is sugar and maybe lecithin or something that isn't cocoa. The cocoa butter is the expensive part. What type of sugar? Well, if the chocolate is organic, it's organic sugar which usually means evaporated cane juice but it's still sugar. It isn't white sugar but it is sucrose. It has a great taste and it is what we use in our caramels and other candies that have added sugar. That is when we aren't using blue agave.

Here at Life by Chocolate, we don't add any sugar to our bars and most of our other chocolates. And by sugar we mean cane sugar. Of course, we have honey in our bars, and that is sugar. Levulose. Read here for more information about glucose and fructose. Some chocolate makers add extra sugar in one form or another. We add ingredients that are healthy and good for you.

And we have bars with blue agave sweetener in them and that sugar but it's a low glycemic sugar. Whether it is actually any better than say honey is hard to say. Obviously, fructose is some what better for you than glucose if you are worried about the glycemic index. But also remember, fructose gets turned into glucose in your liver so that it can be used by your cells. And, depending on the manufacturer, agave sweetner is usually 56-72% fructose.

Basically, what we make at Life by Chocolate are chocolates and confections and if you are diabetic, eat with caution. Most diabetics looks for 70% or greater dark chocolate. Our dark chocolate is usually 70-72%, depending on what you get. 100% cocoa content is bitter, though some like it. Also diabetics look for our chocolates that have nuts in them, such as O! Sunny Day or Smoke on the Chocolate, both are organic. See your doctor before eating sweets.

For Bittersweet chocolate, that is about 70% cocoa liquor or mass, no it isn't a liquor, that's just what they call it, and usually about 0-15% extra cocoa butter, the expensive stuff, no milk, total fat is about 25-38%, total carbs are about 25-38%. Sugar is the rest. Always. In milk chocolate, you have a percentage of milk. But if a milk chocolate is a 38% milk chocolate, then that means that 38% is the cocoa content and the rest is milk and sugar.

The thing that you just don't know about the chocolate percentage is how much cocoa butter is in it, that's the expensive part. At Life by Chocolate, we always use good chocolate with high cocoa butter content for superior mouth feel and snap. It's all either couverture or the American version of couverture. And chocolate is never heated past 110F.