What does the percentage on a bar really mean?
On a dark bar, the percentage is often the first figure people look at. Yet it says less than it seems: it all depends on what it adds up.
What the percentage counts
The percentage shows how much of the bar comes from cocoa. The rest is mostly sugar: an ‘80%’ bar therefore contains about 20% sugar.
But the figure adds up everything that comes from cocoa: the cocoa mass, the ground bean, and the cocoa butter added to the recipe. Two bars showing the same percentage can therefore hold very different amounts of bean.
80% on the label, 65% bean
Take a standard 80% bar. Within that 80%, about 15% are additives (mostly cocoa butter, then emulsifiers and flavourings), which brings the real cocoa mass down to 65%.
The figure on the packaging is not wrong. It simply says something other than what one imagines when reading it.
Cocoa mass, the essential
In this pursuit of purity, cocoa mass plays a central role. Coming straight from the beans, it carries the very essence of chocolate. The higher its share, the less the chocolate needs anything added, and the truer it stays to the natural aromas of the cocoa.
That is why the percentage on our bars stands for the whole content of the cocoa bean. Nothing superfluous added: no flavourings, no emulsifiers, no substitute fats.
The case of Solo Cacao
Our Solo Cacao 80% contains 80% pure cocoa mass and 20% panela cane sugar, with no additive at all. It is made without added cocoa butter, to give the beans all the room.
Its beans come from old trees on exceptional plots; their taste is so complex that no other ingredient is needed. Our other chocolates are made of three ingredients only: pure cocoa mass, cocoa butter from the same beans and locally produced panela cane sugar.
Reading a label
Beyond the percentage, the ingredient list is the best clue. Ingredients are listed from most to least present: added cocoa butter, an emulsifier such as lecithin or flavourings say a lot about the recipe.
Origin is the other landmark. A clearly identified origin, a region, sometimes a plantation, says far more than plain ‘cocoa’. With us it is spelled out in full: 100% chocolate, 0% compromise.
