White chocolate is not very good, but dark chocolate is fucking disgusting. I do have to think that people are just pretending to like it. I mean, alcohol is disgusting too but at least there’s a point to drinking it.
I think a lot of the problem is that people think dark chocolate should be eaten the way milk or other heavily sweetened chocolate can be. If you take a big old hunk of dark and chew on it, you’re not going to have a good time. And you can’t just go with Hershey’s special dark or Baker’s chocolate. You gotta go with someone that makes dark chocolate as its own thing.
But then, you take smaller bits and let them melt across your tongue, more like you do something akin to hard candies. This allows the bitterness to be mitigated by the floral and earthy flavors. The sweetness that is there balances out the bitterness more. That’s where dark chocolate becomes something delightful.
Works similar in “sipping” chocolate compared to the more standard hot chocolate. The little sips make the depth of flavor roll over your tongue I’m sensual waves rather than just hitting you with the bolt of sweetness and cocoa surface flavor.
Which is akin to the difference between boutique coffees and good but mass roasted stuff like Folgers. You drink Folgers when you want decent flavor and a hit of caffeine in a hot liquid. You use the others when you have time to sit down and really savor your cup.
Bringing it back to alcohol, you can have well brands that are booze with flat flavors, or “fancier” stuff that has layers of taste (that you may or may not like).
You’d also be surprised to find that the chemistry in chocolate give it a point beyond flavor as well. It won’t get you high in any quantities you’d want to intake, but there’s a ton of feel-good stuff in there.
Legit, not trying to change your mind here, just trying to give a view at those of us that genuinely enjoy dark chocolate. It isn’t pretend, it’s just a different goal.
So technically speaking the % dark is the amount of cocoa (solids+butter) / total. There really isn’t a standard way that dark chocolate is defined otherwise.
Therefore you can have a 75% dark chocolate that is well balanced (70% cocoa, 5% added cocoa butter, 25% sugar) but have it be less dark than a white chocolate that is 80% cocoa butter and 20% other stuff since it’s technically 80% dark.
Not really sure where I’m going with this other than to say generalities in chocolate, like saying all dark chocolate is sour, suck. In any case, white chocolate is usually crap
They’re saying that the % in dark chocolate is percentage of cocoa in general, which would include both cocoa butter (the only “chocolate” part of white chocolate) and cocoa solids (the fermented product of the cocoa bean, what I would consider to be chocolate). I’m not sure how accurate this is because I always thought it was a measure of percentage of cocoa solids, not just “cocoa” in general which would include the butter. I could be mistaken.
Wait, dark chocolate is sour? Very high concentration (80%+) dark chocolate is close to powdery and has some fruity notes, but it's usually slightly bitter rather than sour to me. It's not my favourite but I can't think of it as being sour.
There are some chocolates that are definitely sour, sometimes that’s a desired flavor when making chocolate. For example, the last batch of single origin Peru chocolate was noticable more sour than the Bolivian and Ecuadorian ones I made. I’d actually intentionally selected my beans knowing this.
Take 2 pounds of cream cheese, float the foil packs in warm water for 10-15 min. Drop the cheese into a bowl with 1.5 cups of sugar and hit it with a mixer until it's nice and smooth.
Add 3/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder. Dutch processing reduces the acidity and makes it darker and smoother.
5 eggs, 2 tablespoons of vanilla, then the secret ingredients, 1/4 cup of Grand Marnier and 2 teaspoons of orange extract.
Mix all that up until it's smooth again, then add an entire 10 oz. bag of miniature chocolate chips. Important you use mini chips because full size chips won't melt all the way and leave a weird texture.
Now, prep the pan, take a 9" springform pan and spray it with non-stick spray. Pop in 1/4 cup MORE Dutch processed cocoa powder and swirl it all around so it coats all the surfaces. This is going to bake into a dark chocolate crust.
Pour in the batter and bake at 200°F for EIGHT HOURS. I put it in the oven, go to bed and set an alarm. In the morning, your whole house will smell like chocolate and oranges.
Now, the worst part, it has to chill. You can't just eat it, it's pudding right now. So step 1, let it sit on a wire rack until it's room temp. 2 to 4 hours.
Put a plate on top, flip it over, and remove the springform pan. Put the cake in the refrigerator and chill another 2 to 4 hours.
When the cake is chilled, put another plate on top, flip it right side up, decorate, slice, and serve. I like topping it with some little candied oranges.
Don't do this if you dislike the orange/chocolate combination. I really dislike that, I don't know why. I don't like dark chocolate, prefer milk chocolate, but I like oranges. Putting them together will make me throw it away.
But it looks like a good recipe for those who do like the combo!
The brilliant bit is once you have the base mix, you can flavor it however you want by swapping out the Grand Marnier and Extract with whatever you want. I made a hazelnut version with Frangelico and hazelnut extract, but you could do banana, cocoanut, raspberry...
White chocolate literally just tastes like sugar and fat. And “sour”??? What dark chocolate are you eating? This one actually pissed me off fr. Truly unpopular opinion.
As an American pushing 40, I will tell you, in my whole life, I have rarely ever seen someone just eating a Hershey bar. And I mean very rarely, like twice in my life. They are usually used in some other way like S’mores.
When someone wants just chocolate they grab something better like Ghirardelli or something.
I did a chocolate tour once. They explained that beans from certain places do have a more sour taste and some bars have it. Its been a while so I don’t even remember which beans it was but it is a real thing.
Milk Chocolate > White Chocolate > Dark Chocolate.
Milk chocolate is the best of chocolates when there are no extra additives on it's own.
Dark Chocolate as much as I hate it, IS better than white chocolate on it's own.
White chocolate without any sort of flavor enhancers is just so damn bland. However, it's just like eating salt on it's own. Gross by itself, but delicious with something else to go with it. White chocolate is a catalyst. Milk Chocolate is a treat. Dark Chocolate goes in the trash. I'll begrudgingly eat it if I have no other better chocolate around lol.
The only people I've ever seen like dark chocolate are people who hate themselves, take scalding hot showers with the heat of a thousand suns, and enjoy starting their day with black coffee. AKA, people who had no self esteem as a teenager until they forced adult habits on themselves before they were ready rather than admitting they like 'childish' stuff. Cultural masculinity is so weird.
I absolutely do love all the things you named. I feel like in both chocolate and coffee that the milk rounds out flavors to be nice and smooth, but you lose some of detail. Sometimes they both go too far and end up in a sour or bitter mess, but I really enjoy the tastes on the edge of being too far.
Hot showers are just luxury. Put some lotion on after and your skin will be fine.
I always thought it was cold showers that went along with black coffee. I personally enjoy the taste of coffee but it took a while to get my setup dialed in to not make the coffee taste bad black. I think a lot of people just drink bad coffee. I get what you’re saying, but I’m genderqueer and I still enjoy the taste of coffee.
Dark chocolate is not unsweetened though. Nobody is enjoying straight baking chocolate with no sugar in it. Dark chocolate is lightly sweetened cold brew coffee, not black coffee.
Have liked dark chocolate (and licorice) since I was a wee lass, even back when I did like very sweet things. Still can’t enjoy black coffee.
White chocolate and milk chocolate are both ok but semi-sweet and dark chocolate are heavenly.
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