How to Read Chocolate Bar Labels to Make Sure You Are Getting the Best Product
When you accidentally shop in the chocolate aisle, it’s easy to assume that everything on the shelf is in high quality fashionable packaging, but this is not always the case. As with wine, fancy packaging doesn’t always mean you want what you need inside. However, understanding the product description for each bar can be tricky if you don’t know what you are looking for.
Bon Appetit this week published an excerpt from Megan Giller’s forthcoming book From Beans to Chocolate . In it, Giller explains how to read a chocolate bar on packaging and what should make you avoid the bar.
Typically, most craft chocolate bars tell you where the chocolate came from on the front of the label. You will also see the cocoa percentage and the expiration date. As with most other foods, you want your bar to be as fresh as possible.
You can also see the list of ingredients. Giller notes that cocoa beans should always be first on the ingredient list. Phrases such as “artisan”, “craft” and “handicraft” are often used on labels to make things look unusual, but they have no legal definition and should not be relied upon as a quality mark.
As for what to avoid. Here are some of Giller’s suggestions:
- Chocolaty – For a chocolate bar to be “chocolate” in the US, it must be at least 10% cocoa. If not, then you can see it under the name “Chocolaty” or “made from chocolate”. Stay away from this. This phrase will also be used if the bar uses artificial sweeteners, fats other than cocoa butter, or milk replacers.
- Vanillin is a synthetic version of vanilla. You don’t want it covered in chocolate.
- PGPR is a stand made of polyglycerol polyricinoleate, which is used as an emulsifier in low-quality chocolate.
- Product or Distributor – These phrases are a good sign that your “craft” chocolate bar is not at all like. If something is “distributed” it was most likely done by a large conglomerate and then renamed craft. Likewise, “Product from Switzerland / Belgium, etc.” Usually means the bar was made by a larger company and then sold to the “craft” brand you buy.
Take a look at the complete excerpt, along with a graphic guide to reading chocolate labels at Bon Appetit .