What is the difference between dark chocolate and milk chocolate

After seeds are harvested from cacao pods that grow on small trees native to the Amazon Basin, they're fermented, dried, and roasted into cocoa beans, then turned into cocoa nibs. Then from there, those nibs go through different processes that result in the many forms of chocolate you see on store shelves, from powders and liquids to chocolate bars.

The more chocolate is processed, the more is loses the qualities that make it healthy in the first place. Many of the benefits of chocolate come from flavanols phytonutrients found in cocoa , which have antioxidant effects—and a very bitter taste.

But as it's fermented, alkalized, and roasted to help neutralize that taste, those flavanols start to disappear, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Since dark chocolate contains a minimum of 35 percent cocoa, it keeps more of its health benefits than milk chocolate, which only contains under 10 percent cocoa—AKA you're barely getting any chocolate at all but something that tastes really stinkin' good. When it comes to which type of chocolate is the healthiest, the answer is simple: it's dark chocolate by a landslide.

Since dark varieties contain super-high cocoa contents usually 70 to 80 percent, but many up to ! But the more cocoa you have, the more bitter your chocolate will be—and that's exactly why milk chocolate adds in a lot of milk and sugar to sweeten things up.

In recent years, dark chocolate has also been the subject of various health improvement studies! Health benefits associated with dark chocolates in particular seem to stem from the high content of antioxidants they provide. This has been attributed to lowering the risk of developing heart disease and other related issues.

How then, does the infamous white chocolate fit into this debate? Vanilla, milk, sugar, and lecithin a type of fat are the key ingredients in creating this highly sweet, floral delight. Cocoa butter, often used in milk chocolate as well, is usually included, however, white chocolate does not make use of cocoa solids — just the extract. It was the Germans who developed a milk chocolate drink in the mid s and the Swiss who engineered the first milk chocolate solid towards the end of the same century using condensed milk.

For me, dark chocolate was classy. It gave me an opportunity to take myself more seriously. And it made me feel like I was really treating myself. The difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolate is that dark chocolate does not have any milk solids added.

Because of this, it is fuller in real chocolate taste and results in a drier, more chalky texture. Perhaps the most pronounced difference in taste is the deeper bitterness of dark chocolate which tickles the palette in aftertaste. Much too has been made of the health benefits of dark chocolate.

It is argued that dark chocolate is nutritious in fibre and minerals; that it is a powerful source of antioxidants; and that it may improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. Surely, this is an added bonus to the wonderful taste that it delivers. Obviously, these are just my subjective opinions on the different types of chocolate.

These days, it depends on my mood as to which chocolate I want to try and my choice is shaped by memories of eating chocolate throughout my life and the emotions they trigger. Which is your favourite chocolate? Do you prefer white, milk or dark? And have you enjoyed a similar evolution in taste?

The liquor is then processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. It is the cocoa solids that give the bitter taste of chocolate. The different combinations of the cocoa solids and cocoa butter with other ingredients give the multiple types of chocolate.

Dark chocolate has the highest percentage of cocoa solids and cocoa butter of all types. The other added ingredients are sugar and cocoa bean powder. Milk chocolate contains milk powder, sugar, and a small percentage of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. It is the addition of milk powder and the lowering of cocoa in milk chocolate that gives it a creamier and sweeter taste.