How to Read the Chocolate Label Correctly – Tips and Advice

By Steive Pavel 8 years ago

Knowledge of reading the chocolate label helps in the correct purchase of chocolate bar. Purchasing the chocolate in this way will help you make the desserts and cakes in right taste, calorie, texture and color as you have expected.

Many of us are not aware of the terminologies of chocolates. If you are one of them then these tips will be very useful to you.

Bean to Bar

This type of label indicates that the chocolate manufacturer used whole cacao beans to prepare this chocolate. Cacao beans are being roasted, grounded, and then smoothened to give it a shape of chocolate from raw form.

If you don’t find private label chocolate with this indication, then it implies that the chocolate is made from already made chocolate. It is melted and infused with the other ingredients to form a bar of their own brand.

Cacao Percentage

Most of the chocolates that you find at a grocery store have written cacao percentage. For example: if it says that this percentage is 70 then it means that this bar contains 70 percentage of cocoa mass that includes cocoa butter and cocoa solids.

The remaining percentage is comprised of other ingredients such as sugar, vanilla, and nuts such as cashew, coconut, pistachios, almonds, raspberries, etc.

Ingredients of a chocolate

Ingredients are again a very important label that provides the whole composition of the chocolate. Chocolates are made using two main ingredients sugar and cacao beans. Some chocolates also contain soy lecithin and cocoa butter that helps in enhancing its texture and taste.

Type of trade

This is one label that can tell you about the fairness and quality of the product. If the product states fair trade, direct trade or rainforest alliance then it denotes that the chocolate is made using superior quality products, equipment and methods.

The more information you find on the label of a chocolate bar pertaining to the farmer and the beans, the more possibilities that the chocolate is manufactured conscientiously and ethically.

Area of origin

There is a label that tells you the place of origin of the chocolate. The market is full of chocolate of different places of origin. Some are imported chocolate while others are manufactured within the country. Name of the countries is written on the bar that gives you information about the place of its manufacture.

Manufacture Date and Expiry Date

This is one of the labels that most of us are aware of and mostly check it before buying any product. These two labels denote the quality of the product.

The expiry date is mostly linked to the manufacture date so it is essential to pay attention to both these dates before its consumption. Only purchase chocolates that are within the expiry date and also consider when you are going to use it in your preparation or consumption.

Hope this knowledge has given a good understanding about chocolates. Purchasing a chocolate after reading its label would help you get the right one.