I like chocolate, especially milk chocolate, but I don’t like the overly sweet taste of it. I’ve been looking for less sweet varieties, but all I was able to find is sugar-reduced (or sugar-free) dark chocolates. Some claim to be sugar-free milk chocolates, but what it usually means is that they use some other sweetener, staying at least as sweet, essentially defeating the purpose of being sugar-free.
Is sugar required to manufacture milk chocolate in some way? Or is just the market that limited that nobody is producing it?
In: Chemistry
Chocolate is what is called an “emulsion”: a smooth mixture of things that normally don’t mix. So similar to butter (milk fat and water) or mayo (oil and water), but instead its main ingredients are cocoa solids, cocoa fat and sugar. To get the texture and taste of chocolate just right, you really have to dial in the proportions of these ingredients.
So if you want to remove the sugar, you’re going to have to replace it with something else. The usual way is to increase the content of cocoa solids to replace sugar, which will result in a harder and darker chocolate. Now I don’t think there’s anything stopping you from making milk chocolate with something like erythrit instead of sugar, but that might be a too niche market for anyone to bother with.
100% chocolate would be so bitter you would hate it.
Chocolate needs sweetness to cut the bitterness and to taste good.
Dark chocolate has less sugar in it but still a fair bit.
Milk also had a natural sugar called lactose which makes it sweet.
So there’s sugar in milk that adds to the sweet flavor of milk chocolate and round out the bitterness of the cacao.
It’s hard to add sugar to straight cacao without something for it to bond to like milk
I was a chocolatier for a decade so maybe I can help answer your question.
You can find sweeter varieties of dark chocolate if you look into more “boutique” chocolate makers.
You can tell by looking at the percentage of cocoa solids which should be labeled somewhere on the packaging. I’ve worked with dark chocolate getting into the 30% range which is in the same range as milk chocolate, it does exist.
I’m pretty sure TCHO and almost certain Guittard (fun fact: the oldest family owned Chocolate producer in the US) carry varieties of “mild dark chocolate”.
Bear in mind that there will still be some amount of bitterness, as milk works to blunt that. It helps to think of chocolate like a cup of coffee, a little milk and sugar goes further than sugar alone in changing the basic taste. It’s also the milk that primarily lightens chocolate in the process of chocolate making.
Latest Answers