Hi everyone,

Curious about how to calculate the %'s in bean to bar chocolate, if making a 70% bar that needs maybe 5% added cocoa butter would the recipe be:

70% cocoa beans (35%cocoa+35%butter)

25% sugar

5% butter

OR:

65% cocoa beans (32.5%cocoa+32.5%butter)

30% sugar

5% butter

I suppose my main question is whether by adding extra cocoa butter comes under the total cocoa solids/beans %, or an added extra like sugar?

So for the two example recipes i posted, would the first be a 70% chocolate, and the 2nd be a 65% chocolate? or are they both 70% chocolates?

Hope this makes sense, and someone can put my mind at rest.

The first would be a 75% cacao chocolate. The second would be a 70%.

hi Ben thanks so much for the reply.

So even though the 5% cocoa butter is an added extra to original 70% bean mix it gets included into the overall cocoa solids %?

Yet in white chocolate its said there is no cocoa solids, but its made using cocoa butter. So how can cocoa butter be classed as part of the cocoa solids when added extra into dark chocolate?

Would that then mean that 'cocoa solids' actually refer to what is essentially 'cocoa powder' that makes up 1/2 the cocoa bean? If thats the case then a 70% dark chocolate should actually be classed as a 35% cocoa solids?

It's something that has been plaguing me, and now got me horribly confused

The cacao percentage of a chocolate includes both non-fat cacao solids and cocoa butter. Technically, a 70% bar could be made up of any of the following:

• 70% nibs, 0% added CB
• 0% nibs, 70% CB 
• anywhere inbetween the above two

So, I would probably say that the statement that there are no cacao solids in white chocolate is incorrect. I suppose you could have a 70% cacao white chocolate, but I'd imagine it would be pretty gross.  :)

updated by @ben-rasmussen: 05/27/16 12:04:04

This has been discussed in some detail elsewhere on these forums. You could do a search and find a bunch of threads dealing with it.

i did actually try searching the forums a bit earlier, but not a lot came up, will maybe do a bit more digging then.

Thanks for your reply though, that does clear it up for me.

Think it has largely been confusing terminology. found this online, let me know if you agree with it.

http://chocolateincontext.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/chocolate-linguistics-2-cocoa-mass-v.html

so:

cocoa solids = anything that has come from a cocoa bean, be it the amount of actual beans you use and/or any added extra cocoa butter. Which would tie in with what you said about white chocolate

cocoa mass = 'the brown part' produced from pressing the liquour/solids i.e. cocoa powder

Everything from the cocoa bean is technically a cocoa solid. There are two types of solids:

1. Non-fat cocoa solids (the powder with zero fat)
2. Fat (cocoa butter is solid at room temperature)

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/

updated by @clay: 05/27/16 13:20:40

James: 

Cocoa mass == cocoa liquor == chocolate liquor == ground up cocoa (nib) with nothing added.

To make cocoa butter/cocoa powder, you put the cocoa mass/liquor into a press and apply heat and pressure to separate them.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/

When calculating it's important to know that cocoa beans generally range in fat from 47-53%. Most chocolate manufacturers don't provide the ratio fat to non-fat solids, including any added cocoa butter in their recipes. You can get this information on most commercial couvertures by asking the manufacturer. However, if you do not actually test the bean (or liquor) you don't know the precise fat content so it's impossible to know the ratio of fat to non-fat solids in your product -- and hence, calories from fat and other nutritional data.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/