12 Different Types Of Chocolate To Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

Here are 5 FAQs for different types of chocolates:

1. What is the difference between dark, milk, and white chocolate?

While dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cocoa solids, making it less sweet, milk chocolate adds milk solids and sugar, creating a creamier and sweeter taste. On the other hand, white chocolate contains cocoa butter but no cocoa solids, making it the sweetest and milder in flavour.

2. Which is the best chocolate for baking?

Semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate is ideal for baking due to its balanced sweetness and rich cocoa flavour, making it perfect for cakes, cookies, and other desserts.

3. What is the difference between chocolate and cacao?

Cacao refers to the raw, unprocessed beans from which chocolate is made, while chocolate is the processed product that results from cacao beans being mixed with sugar, milk, and other ingredients.

4. What is vegan chocolate?

Vegan chocolate is made without any dairy products, using non-dairy milk alternatives such as almond, soy, or coconut, and often without animal-derived ingredients like gelatine or honey.

5. Which is the best chocolate that can be eaten raw?

High-quality dark chocolate, with at least 70% cocoa, is often preferred for raw eating due to its rich, complex flavour and higher cocoa content. It also contains fewer additives than milk or white chocolate.

The most common and the most popular milk chocolates are melt-in-the-mouth treats that are on the sweeter end of the spectrum. Made by combining milk ingredients, sugar, chocolate liquor, and cocoa powder, milk chocolates have a creamier, lighter, and smoother texture. You can use this type of chocolate for brownies and pancakes, but keep in mind that they are prone to overheating because of high concentrations of milk solids. What we love about them, apart from how delicious they are, is that they are easily available.

Best Brands: Ferrero Rocher, Aadvik, Toblerone, and Milka

The other very well-known type of chocolate is dark chocolate. Consisting of up to 90% cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and less sugar, this type is considered quite nutritious and is rich in minerals and soluble fibre. With its signature snap and slightly bitter taste, it's highly recommended for patients who suffer from low blood pressure and, in my opinion, has the most robust taste out of all types.

Best Brands: Subko, Cadbury, Ketofy Dark, Zevic Blegian Sugar, and Bogatchi

Prepared from cocoa butter that is derived from cocoa beans and mixed with milk powders, sugars, and other ingredients, white chocolate has always been something that has divided the crowd. The lack of cocoa nibs has always put a question of authenticity on it as 'chocolate,' but there is a large majority who love the creamy vanilla taste of it. Its variants with spices, like ginger and cinnamon, are also quite popular, used in ice creams and in decorating and baking.

Best Brands: Milka, Leonidas, Elvan, and Amul

A form of dark chocolate with 50% less sugar, semi-sweet chocolate doesn't have any criteria for the concentration of cocoa solids. Usually, you will find a concentration between 35% to 65%. This type of chocolate is commonly found in the form of chocolate chips and is a favourite among bakers. 

Best Brands: Hershey's, Urban Platter, and Bar

One of the types of chocolates, invented during the Napolean regency, Gianduja chocolate has a 30% blend of hazelnut paste and comes in milk as well as a plain variant. It has a silky, smooth texture, and its spreadable version is known as Nutella to us. In fact, most chocolate spreads are made from Gianduja and could be used as the filling inside chocolates.

Best Brands: Cococart India and Fabelle

Commonly referred to as baking chocolate, unsweetened chocolate is ground cocoa mass mixed into chocolate liquor. It consists of equal parts cocoa butter and cocoa solids, containing no sugar. You can taste a lot of tannins and acidity; professionals especially recommend it as the perfect ingredient for classic fudge brownies.

Best Brand: Didier & Frank

Surprisingly not from Germany, Samuel German invented German's Chocolate in Dallas, Texas in 1852. He experimented with semi-sweet chocolate, adding more sugar to create a sweet and rich flavour profile. The chocolate was later trademarked and sold by Baker's brands. Today, it's not as readily available as other varieties. It's best known for producing stellar chocolate frosting for cakes and cupcakes.

Made by grinding cocoa nibs with coarse sugar and a bit of cinnamon, Mexican Table Chocolate has a warm spice flavour, mostly used in hot chocolate and moles. It is widely used for cooking and not that much for snacking because of its deeper and more robust flavour.

Best Brand: Cocosutra

Confectioners and bakers use modelling chocolate to create chocolate decorations. It's a mixture of melted chocolate and corn syrups that makes a pliable dough that reacts to heat, so it's relatively easy and quite fun to work with. You'll find that people use this to create lovely decor on cakes that look like artwork. 

With a higher percentage of cocoa butter, couverture chocolate is made by grinding the chocolate to a finer paste. Because of the cocoa butter, it has a silky, smooth, glossy finish and is used for tempering. Tempering is the process of heating and then cooling the chocolate to stabilise it for making candies and confections. It melts quickly compared to dark chocolate and is creamy, mostly found covering bon bons, eclairs, cakes, and truffles.

Best Brand: Van Heuten and Callebaut

Ruby Chocolate is made from ruby cocoa beans only found in Ecuador, Brazil, and the Ivory Coast. It is closely related to white chocolate but also evokes notes of citrus, raspberry, and some red fruit. It is sweet, milky, and delicious, great for snacking, and has a pretty pink colour.

Best Brand: Barry Callebaut and Chocolove 

The building block for any baker, cocoa powder is also described as the true essence of chocolate flavour. This powder is derived from roasted cocoa beans that have been processed and has tons of applications in the world of baking; it can be used for brownies, cakes, frosting, and even some savoury dishes.

Best Brands: Cadbury, Hershey's, Didier & Franks, and Christopher Cocoa

This article got you yearning for some chocolate? Here are the best homegrown brands for chocolate that should be on your radar!