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See why.Dark Chocolate
It’s easy to find a great snacking chocolate. But cooking is different: Choosing the right dark chocolate can make the difference between a dessert that’s flawless and one that’s a flop.
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What You Need To Know
In the past decade, Americans have gotten serious about dark chocolate. Rich, complex, and even bitter, its flavor transcends the mild, sugar-laden milk chocolate that many of us grew up with. As a result, ever-climbing cacao percentages are now posted prominently on packaging, and chocophiles have come to describe bars with the same level of detail that they’d use for a fine Cabernet. “Bean to bar” is hot, as artisanal chocolatiers take control of every aspect of chocolate making, from sourcing to production. Single-origin bars are trendy, too, showcasing distinct regional characteristics such as the intensely floral flavor of beans from the mountains of Peru or the dried mint overtones of bars made from the beans from Trinidad.
But almost all these pricey chocolates are meant to be eaten plain, savored by the sliver, rather than used for cooking. It seems wasteful to cook with them, as many of their more delicate notes won’t survive a hot oven. (You know that unmistakable fragrance that pervades the kitchen when you’re baking chocolate cake or brownies? Those are flavor and aroma volatiles driven out of the baked goods by the heat.)
To find a great everyday dark chocolate, we focused on national supermarket brands; after all, we want to be able to pick some up whenever the need for a brownie strikes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t set a standard of identity for dark chocolate except that “bittersweet” and “semisweet” chocolate must contain at least 35 percent cacao—and it doesn’t differentiate between the two terms. (The cacao percentage is the portion of the chocolate made from the cacao bean and includes both cocoa solids and cocoa butter; the rest is mostly sugar.) In the past we’ve focused on products with about 60 percent cacao, but this time, to truly evaluate all the supermarket options, if it met the FDA’s 35 percent cacao minimum, we considered it for our lineup. We found nine nationally available chocolates, priced from $0.47 to $1.43 per ounce, and included our winner from a previous tasting, which is available in most Whole Foods Markets and via mail order.
We conducted three blind taste tests, evaluating the chocolates’ flavor, sweetness, texture, and overall appeal. We sampled them plain and also in brownies to see how well the chocolate flavor endured heat. Finally we melted them in pots de crème—a creamy application where textural differences are laid bare. After the results were tallied, we had to ask: Was there such a thing as a great-tasting, easy-to-find dark chocolate that works well in recipes? Happily, yes. But buyer beware: It’s stacked on supermarket shelves right next to prod...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
This bar rated the highest for eating plain, with a complex flavor that combined the tart fruitiness of cherries and wine with a slight smokiness. Its high—but not too high—level of cocoa solids made this bar easy to work with in creamy desserts, turning out exceptionally “satiny, gorgeous” pots de crème with “dark, bold” flavor that “screams chocolate.”
Our previous winner was again “rich,” “intense,” and “earthy,” with notes of “coffee,” “a balanced bitterness,” and “just the right amount of sweetness”—attributes that made their way into the brownies. With a high level of cocoa solids, this product sometimes made silky pots de crème that were a bit grainy.
Recommended
This fudgy mass-market bar lacked bitterness but still offered pleasing complexity: boozy notes of Kahlúa and rum with a “nutty, mocha flavor.” But a few tasters found it too sweet in desserts—more “like a candy bar” than like baking chocolate. It was notably smooth, with tasters calling it “lush” and “melt-in-your-mouth.”
Many detected “intense” grown-up flavors in this chocolate, which boasted hints of berry and a “background smokiness.” Others found it “pleasant but generic,” impressions that carried over to brownies and pots de crème.
Recommended with reservations
In both the plain and the brownie tastings, this basic supermarket product was a hit with tasters, earning praise for a “rich,” “intense” chocolate flavor that had notes of coconut and coffee. But with high levels of cocoa solids, it consistently made “gritty” pots de crème.
Though in the main tasters found this chocolate “uninteresting” for snacking purposes, it excelled in brownies, where it was dubbed a “good little workhorse,” with a nice balance of cocoa and sugar and with hints of “roasted pecan.” In pots de crème, it exhibited an unwanted coconut aftertaste.
The enjoyable bitter and dried fruit flavors in this bar were muted by a milky sweetness. This product was “enjoyable” in brownies, but with low cocoa solids, it made disappointing pots de crème that were too loose.
Not Recommended
Far too sweet and milky, this high-sugar, very low cocoa solids bar was “like being attacked by a Tootsie Roll.” Its strong notes of hazelnut, caramel, and butterscotch overwhelmed its feeble chocolate flavor so much that the brownies “might as well be blondies,” one taster said. The pot de crème was runny.
Despite its name, this bar was too much like milk chocolate, a “cream bomb” with just a touch of caramel and roasted nuts. Texturally, it was “bendy,” with “no snap.” It made “loose and runny” pots de crème and its brownies rated “on the bland side.”
Sampled plain, this bar was flat-out sweet, like “cheap Halloween candy.” Brownies were its best application, though it was still overly sugary and weak on chocolate flavor. In pots de crème it was “runny, like bad pudding.”
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