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Dark chocolate, also known as plain chocolate and black chocolate, is a form of chocolate made from cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. It has a higher cocoa percentage than white chocolate and milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is valued for its health benefits, and for its reputation as a sophisticated choice of chocolate. Like milk and white chocolate, dark chocolate is used to make and to Enrober confectionery.
Dark chocolate gained much of its reputation in the late 20th century, as French chocolate worked to establish dark chocolate as preferred over milk chocolate in the French national palate. As this preference was exported to countries such as the United States, associated values of terroir, bean-to-bar chocolate making and gourmet chocolate followed. Because of the high cocoa percentage, dark chocolate can contain particularly high amounts of heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.
Compared to other types of chocolate, dark chocolate has a more bitter and intense flavor, and is more reliant on the quality of its and cocoa butter ingredients. Dark chocolate is made by a process of mixing, refining, conching, and standardizing. Government and industry standards of what may be labeled "dark chocolate" vary by country and market.
In 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten received a patent for the manufacturing process for making Dutch cocoa, removing cocoa butter from cocoa liquor, and creating the potential for mass production. In 1847, the first modern chocolate bar was created by the British chocolate maker Fry's, and over the next century it would be improved with a series of new techniques including conching and tempering. With the invention of the modern milk chocolate in 1875, the term dark chocolate was coined to distinguish the traditional chocolate from the new form. By 1899 in the United States, dark chocolate was considered masculine and inappropriate for children. For much of the following century in the US, dark chocolate was consumed not by itself, but together with other foods such as ice cream, nuts, and coconut. During the World Wars, dark chocolate was fortified with vitamins Vitamin A, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, niacin and sometimes calcium to prevent malnutrition. As of the 1930s in Britain, dark chocolate was being sold in thin portions, and was sold for taste rather than taste and hunger as was done for milk chocolate. That decade, chocolate makers there began associating their dark chocolate products with upper-class women in their advertising. This was a response to market research of the time claiming dark chocolate was favored by the higher social classes, compared to a working class who preferred milk chocolate.
During the late 1970s, when the price of cocoa was very low, the palate of French connoisseurs moved strongly in favor of dark chocolates and against milk chocolate after advocacy from the chocolatier Robert Linxe. At the same time, some American consumers began to take interest in dark chocolates for the first time, often sourcing product from France and Belgium. The following decade, a nationwide campaign in France aimed to move the public to appreciate locally produced dark chocolates with sophisticated flavor. Taste makers and producers worked together to create flavor standards using concepts borrowed from wine connoisseurship. This was motivated by foreign firms capturing swathes of the French confectionary market at the expense of local chocolatiers. Simultaneously, high-quality dark chocolate began to be attributed psychoactive and possible aphrodisiac qualities due to its theobromine content. In America, broader recognition of dark as distinct from milk chocolate, and of the concepts of bean origin and the percentage of cocoa in the finished product, arose in the years following 1984, when the French chocolate manufacturer Valrhona entered the US market, selling initially to pastry and chocolate manufacturers and later to the general public.
In the 1990s, French flavor standards, having gained mass uptake domestically, were intentionally exported to the United States. These standards, laid out in published guides and chocolate tastings, evoked terroir, bean varietals and estate growths. Chocolate of high cocoa content and novel added flavors (such as pepper, ginger and fennel) was promoted and was sold at significantly higher cost than what had previously been consumed. By the late 2000s, a preference for dark chocolate was seen as the sign of a "discriminating palate" in the United States.
Dark chocolate contains 60 compounds contributing to its flavor, with 33 of these considered particularly important. Basic and neutral compounds are responsible for a "chocolate" flavor, while compounds contribute more sweet flavors. Some of these compounds are the product of Maillard reactions. Some manufacturers age dark chocolate to improve flavor. This is done at a minimum for a few weeks, and it is debated whether ageing for more time is desirable. The antioxidants in cocoa solids are responsible for preserving chocolate; dark chocolate has a shelf life of about two years, longer than milk chocolate, which contains not only fewer antioxidants but perishable milkfat. Dark chocolate can range in color from mahogany to black.
Flavanols found in dark chocolate include the catechin and epicatechin, and (to a lesser extent) the polymeric procyanidins, which remain under laboratory research. Flavanols break down as cocoa beans are fermented, roasted and treated with the Dutch process. To consume enough cocoa flavanols for the presumed effects claimed in some limited studies requires eating at least around of dark chocolate a day, which also involves intake of significant amounts of sugar and saturated fats. The chocolate industry, and in particular Mars, Inc., has funded research to promote chocolate as a health food. As of 2018, Mars had funded more than 150 studies into cocoa flavanols since the 1980s. That year, they said they would no longer try to imply chocolate is a health food.
A 2021 systematic review of the health effects of chocolate and cocoa found high-quality research had still not been performed to evaluate physiological outcomes. The only health effects observed were improvements in lipid profiles; control subjects showed no significant differences in terms of skin, cardiovascular, Anthropometry, cognitive and quality of life outcomes.
A 2024 report analyzing dark chocolate and cocoa samples in the United States from 2014 to 2022 found that multiple samples exceeded Prop 65 levels for heavy metals: 43% of samples exceeding levels for lead, and 35% exceeding levels for cadmium. However, a 2024 study published in Food Research International found that high metal content in dark chocolate may pose health concerns mainly only for children.
Many dark chocolate products sold label the cocoa percentage. This percentage refers to the percent of the chocolate that is chocolate liquor and cocoa butter, with almost all of the rest being sugar. As what part is chocolate liquor and what part is cocoa butter is not identified, chocolates with an identical cocoa percentage can have vastly different compositions and characteristics. Chocolates containing more chocolate liquor are more intensely flavored and more Viscosity. Variability in the quality of cocoa beans mean chocolates with lower cocoa percentages can have more desirable flavors than those with higher percentages.
Conching machines mix and knead a cocoa mass, changing the flavor and texture. More than for other types of chocolate, conching dark chocolate serves to remove undesirable flavors. Dark chocolate is conched at higher temperatures than other chocolates, between . If dark chocolate takes on moisture during the conching process, for example by being conched in the same room as milk chocolate with neither enclosed, the dark chocolate can become undesirably thick and develop unpleasant flavors. During the final step of standardizing, emulsifiers and sometimes vanilla flavorings are added. If needed to reach a desired yield or viscosity, more cocoa butter can be added before the mixture undergoes laboratory testing for particle size and food safety. If these standards are met, it is pumped through fine screens to remove any agglomerates. Tempering is performed at different temperatures than for milk chocolate because of how milk fats impact the formation of crystal lattices.
France is considered the "home of dark chocolate", and the industry there uses the term Grand Cru to refer to particularly valued chocolates. As of 2018, retailers and dark chocolate manufacturers there received an equal portion of over two thirds of the margins generated across the cocoa supply chain for dark chocolate tablets. As of 2016, the dark chocolate market was concentrated more in Continental Europe than the United States and England. 31% of chocolate produced was dark chocolate. From 2005 to 2011, dark chocolate consumption in the US increased by 9% per annum. Beyond beliefs around the healthiness of dark chocolate, increased demand for dark chocolate in the United States has also been attributed to a trend of consumers expanding preferences beyond traditional mass-produced chocolate. In the US, this growth has occurred at the expense of milk chocolate. In Germany, the growth in popularity of dark chocolate, competing with the traditional preference for milky chocolates has been attributed to "Foodie". Outside of the West, the growth in popularity of dark chocolate has been observed in Japan.
A large percentage of chocolates sold by the Swiss chocolate maker Lindt are dark chocolate of varying cocoa solid percentages, including 70%, 85% and 90%. Among other forms, dark chocolates are sold as bars and bonbons.
Flavor cocoa, cocoas purchased for a premium that are valued for their flavor or other qualities are mostly used for dark chocolate. These include single source chocolates. Single source dark chocolates are often from countries such as Ecuador and Venezuela. Fruity, astringent and acidic flavors are highlighted in these chocolates, while flavors of smoke and mold flavors are avoided as they cannot be removed by further processing.
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