Do you know your chocolate?

Unsweetened chocolate is pure chocolate liquor.

• bitter
  baking chocolate.
• pure
• deep chocolate flavour.
• Sugar can be added to make it useful for baking

Dark chocolate

• is chocolate without milk as an additive
• "sweet chocolate"
• Contains a 15% concentration of chocolate liquor in the US. European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids.

Milk chocolate

• is chocolate with milk powder or condensed milk added.
• 10% concentration of chocolate liquor in the US and 25% in Europe (cocoa solids).

Semisweet chocolate

• is often used for cooking purposes
• is a dark chocolate with a low (typically half) sugar content.

Bittersweet chocolate

• is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate)
• sugar (typically a third), more cocoa butter, vanilla and sometimes lecithin has been added.
• It has less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate

White chocolate
is actually a confection based on cocoa butter without the cocoa solids.

Cocoa powder
There are two types of unsweetened baking cocoa available: natural cocoa (like the sort produced by Hershey's and Nestlé) and Dutch-process cocoa (such as the Hershey's European Style Cocoa and the Droste brand). Both are made by pulverising partially defatted chocolate liquor and removing nearly all the cocoa butter.

Some candy bars sold in America no longer have true chocolate as a major component. This can translate to poor taste, texture and possibly health concerns, particularly when partially hydrogenated oils are used to replace cacao butter.