What is the difference between dark chocolate and milk chocolate?

The difference is the milk! But let’s look at this a bit more closely.

Dark chocolate

Ingredients:

1. Cacao Bean & Sugar

2. Cacao Bean, Sugar, & Cocoa Butter

Dark chocolate is made from the kernel of the cacao bean or cacao seed. It may also be referred to as just “cacao” or “cocoa”, but also “cocoa mass” or “cocoa nibs”.

Some manufacturers add additional cocoa butter, which is simply the fat from the cocoa bean. This is similar to how peanut butter manufacturers add peanut oil after to ground up peanuts. t makes it less thick/viscous and easier to use. It also adds a more creamy silky texture to it in regards to chocolate.

Percentage:

Generally from 60%+ Percentage generally has nothing to do with quality, but more so telling you the consumer how much sugar to cacao bean there is. For instance, a 70% chocolate bar will contain 70% cacao nibs and 30% sugar. Adding cocoa butter is often regarded as adding more cacao, since it is a constituent of the cacao bean. Some manufacturers reflect this in the percentage as well.

Commercial Dark Chocolate:

Although dark chocolate should not really contain milk, as there is no need for it, cheaper commercial chocolate may include dairy products such as whey into their chocolate. Therefore, be aware of this when buying chocolate from the grocery store. It’s always a good idea to read the ingredient list of anything you’re purchasing. It can tell you a lot about the quality of the product.

Flavoured Bars:

Dark chocolate is essentially the base of all chocolate. Craft bean-to-bar chocolate makers are getting creative and adding many whole ingredients (nuts, dried fruits, etc.) to their refiner and blending it into the chocolate. It creates for some incredible tasting chocolate! Here are a few from the online shop:

Milk Chocolate

Ingredients:

1. Cacao Bean, Sugar, & Milk Powder

2. Cacao Bean, Sugar, Milk Powder, & Cocoa Butter

Milk chocolate is essentially dark chocolate but with less cocoa bean, and more milk powder and sugar. Cocoa butter is almost always added, otherwise the chocolate will be very thick and difficult to manage from a manufacturing point of view.

Percentage:

Most of the commercial milk chocolate you are used to is around 25-30%. This means that the milk chocolate is made up of only about 25-30% cacao nib, and the rest is a mixture of sugar, milk powder, and a little cocoa butter.

Fine chocolate makers produce milk chocolate with around 40-50%, which still allows the chocolate to taste like a creamy milk chocolate, but also without it being too sweet and still providing a nice strong cocoa flavour.

Some makers are producing what is called “dark milk chocolate” which is essentially milk chocolate with a very high percentage of cacao compared to the sugar and milk powder. This can be a 60-65% milk chocolate bar. The creamy milky flavour is still there, but competes more with the cocoa. It’s a great bar for those who don’t like the sweetness of milk chocolate, but enjoy the milky creamy flavour.

Flavoured Bars:

Milk chocolate is essentially dark chocolate flavoured with milk. However, milk chocolate has become it’s own category of chocolate. Milk chocolate can be a base for many flavoured milk chocolate bars, where the whole flavour ingredients like nuts, vanilla bean, etc. (not flavourings as in extracts - that’s for cheaper chocolate) is added to the refiner during processing. Sometimes they are sprinkled or mixed in after the chocolate is made as an inclusion.