Dark Chocolate Ratings

products tested (listed alphabetically)

• Baker's Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate Squares (USA)
• Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate, L-60-40NV
• Dagoba Organic Semisweet Dark Chocolate
• E. Guittard Tsaratana Pure Semisweet Dark Chocolate
• El Rey Mijao Dark Chocolate, Venezuelan Single Bean, Carenero Superior
• Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar
• Hershey's All-Natural Extra Dark Pure Dark Chocolate
• Lindt Excellence Madagascar Extra Fine Mild Dark Chocolate
• Michel Cluizel Noir de Cacao Dark Chocolate
• Nestlé́ Chocolatier Premium Baking Chocolate Bittersweet Chocolate Bar
• Scharffen Berger Fine Artisan Semisweet Dark Chocolate
• Valrhona Le Noir Semisweet Chocolate

See Product Comparison Chart

Just a few years ago, selecting dark chocolate for your dessert recipe seemed pretty simple: You went to the supermarket and bought a bar of baking chocolate. These days, there are dozens of choices, and you can spend hours poring over the cacao percentages and exotic provenances on the labels. You can pay a lot more, too. But does any of it really matter? Does spending more get you better chocolate flavor? And can your choice of chocolate change your baking results?

Chocolate Basics

First, we looked into the definition of "dark chocolate" and discovered it's a pretty loose term. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't distinguish between bittersweet and semisweet chocolate—it simply requires that products by either name contain at least 35 percent cacao (the cocoa solids and cocoa butter from the cacao bean). Companies use the names cacao and cocoa interchangeably, but in general, when there is more cacao in the chocolate, there is less sugar, and bittersweet chocolate tends to be less sweet and have more cacao than semisweet. Even darker chocolates, with higher cacao percentages, will be correspondingly less sweet (100 percent cacao chocolate is completely unsweetened).

Any number of variables—the type of bean, where it's grown, and when it's harvested; the length and conditions of fermentation; the roasting and grinding methods; and the quality and quantity of any additives (such as vanilla)—can contribute to differences in flavor and texture. Chocolate makers claim that every detail is critical—and are loath to share too many specifics.

We'd heard a lot about the type of cacao bean being extremely important. There are only three types. The most prized (and expensive) bean, the criollo, grown mainly in the Caribbean and Central America, makes up less than 2 percent of the world's cacao. Most chocolate is made from forastero beans, generally from Africa. These beans are harvested from hardier trees, which makes them cheaper. The third, trinitario, is a hybrid of the other two beans and comprises about 5 percent of the total harvest.

The Cook's Chocolate-60 Percent Cacao

To choose chocolate for our testing lineup, we ignored "bittersweet" or "semisweet" nomenclature and concerned ourselves with chocolate containing roughly 60 percent cacao—the type that most recipes calling for dark chocolate have been developed to use. We asked twenty-four members of the Cook’s Illustrated staff to taste 12 dark chocolates, sampled plain, in chocolate pots de crème, and baked into brownies.

So which chocolates won favor with our tasters? The results were surprising. The chocolates with the fanciest pedigree in our lineup fell to the bottom of the pack. Our two top-rated chocolates came from blends relying primarily on the inexpensive forastero bean.

Our second discovery also defied expectations. We assumed that if one brand of chocolate is 60 percent cacao, it would be pretty similar in sweetness, chocolate intensity, and creaminess to another brand's 60 percent cacao chocolate. Not so. When chocolate makers grind shelled cacao beans, known as nibs, to create the thick paste called chocolate liquor, this paste contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Most manufacturers then add even more cocoa butter, in varying amounts, to help create the texture of the final chocolate. A few, like our winner, also add extra cocoa solids to intensify the chocolate flavor. Ultimately, however, the cacao percentage on the label of a chocolate bar is a total that includes both cocoa solids and cocoa butter—meaning that different chocolates can have different proportions of each and still share the 60 percent cacao designation. As our lab tests showed, the cocoa solids in our lineup ranged from about 17 percent of a bar's total weight to more than 30 percent, while fat ranged from a third of the weight to nearly half of it. Sugar levels varied by nearly 20 percent as well.

So would the chocolate with the most cocoa butter make the biggest splash, bringing richer, extra-creamy flavor to your desserts? No. In fact, our lab results revealed that the chocolate with the lowest fat won the day, while the one with the most fat came in dead last. And would having the most cocoa solids make a chocolate superior? Again, no. Our tasters preferred chocolates with only a moderate amount. Sweetness wasn't the explanation, either: Chocolates in the middle range of sugar levels were preferred over those with the most sugar, though overall the top half of the rankings had more sugar than the bottom half. In the end, we preferred dark chocolate that achieved the best balance of all three major components—cocoa butter, cocoa solids, and sugar.

Product Tested		Percent cocoa	Country of origin	Price*
Highly Recommended
	Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate, L-60-40NV "Complex flavor, creamy and thick," "dark and earthy," with a "rich cocoa flavor" and "a nice balance of sweetness and bitterness." Tasters picked up "caramel, smoke, and espresso" in the plain tasting. It baked into "what a brownie should be."	60%	Belgium	53 cents per ounce
Recommended
	Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar Tasters discerned "coffee, smoke, and dried fruit" in this "creamy, rich, glossy" chocolate, with a "slight sour aftertaste." In brownies, it had "quintessential brownie flavor" that was "assertive," "like dark chocolate but not cocoa-y or bitter like some others; a really good blend of tastes."	60%	USA	75 cents per ounce
Recommended
	Dagoba Organic Semisweet Dark Chocolate "Fairly sweet" (a few said "cloyingly" so), with "great chocolate flavor," it had "hints of fruit" and "apricot and almond." In pots de crème, it was "very buttery and chocolaty, with a silky texture" and a flavor that was "smooth yet strong." In brownies: "a good one all-around," "malty, sweet, rich, slightly floral."	59%	USA	$1.30 per ounce
Recommended
	Michel Cluizel Noir de Cacao Dark Chocolate "Creamy, not bitter. Nice for an eating chocolate," "complex and earthy," but tasters were reminded of "olive oil" or "mayonnaise." In brownies, it was "very smooth and well balanced," if a bit "bland"; in pots de crème, it was "supercreamy," "like milk chocolate."	60%	France	$1.43 per ounce
Recommended
	Valrhona Le Noir Semisweet Chocolate "A nondark-chocolate-lover’s dark chocolate," this was "well balanced" and "creamy," with "a sharp chocolate fl avor" and "not much aftertaste." In pots de crème, it was "supersmooth and cushiony" and "almost too creamy"; "fudgy" brownies were "very sweet."	56%	France	$1.37 per ounce
Recommended with Reservations
	E. Guittard Tsaratana Pure Semisweet Dark Chocolate "Fruity, spicy," "sweet and smoky," this "very creamy" chocolate had slightly "odd" flavors, including banana, tobacco, beef, and leather, along with caramel and honey. While it had some fans, others observed that it made drier, cakier brownies and slightly "chalky" pots de crème.	61%	USA	$1.45 per ounce
Recommended with Reservations
	Hershey's All-Natural Extra Dark Pure Dark Chocolate A "chalky" texture was decried by many tasters, both when eaten plain and in brownies, though the brownies were praised for "rich, roasted chocolate flavor." In pots de cèrme, it was "dark and glossy," but "very gloppy" and "too gummy and dense—flavor is good, though."	60%	USA	63 cents per ounce
Recommended with Reservations
	El Rey Mijao Dark Chocolate, Venezuelan Single Bean, Carenero Superior "Not very complex" and "mild," with a slightly "sour" aftertaste, it was "sweet and buttery" in pots de crème and "kinda flat" and "dull" in brownies, where it was also deemed "tooth-achingly sweet." "Solid, if unspectacular."	61%	Venezuela	50 cents per ounce
Recommended with Reservations
	Scharffen Berger Fine Artisan Semisweet Dark Chocolate "Lots of fruit" here: Tasters noted cherry (some said "cough syrup"), grape, raspberry, raisins, and prunes. "Complex, but I didn’t care for it," said one. "Gluey" in pots de crème, it had a "roasty" quality in brownies, but "lacked choco-oomph."	62%	USA	$1.03 per ounce
Recommended with Reservations
	Nestlé́ Chocolatier Premium Baking Chocolate Bittersweet Chocolate Bar "Dry and chalky," "grainy," and "gritty," agreed tasters when it was sampled plain and in pots de crème. In brownies, it was "rich" and "fudgy," but again "a bit grainy," with an "almost sour milk taste." Others noted off-flavors that were "metallic," "tannic," "bitter," or "chemical."	62%	USA	56 cents per ounce
Recommended with Reservations
	Baker's Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate Squares (USA) "Very sweet, you can almost taste the sugar granules," with a "bitter coffee flavor." "Very cocoa-y, but otherwise pretty boring." "Tastes like cheap chocolate." It rated poorly when tasted plain and in pots de crème due to its granular texture, but shone in brownies as "very moist, chewy," and "fudgy."	54%	USA	44 cents per ounce
Recommended with Reservations
	Lindt Excellence Madagascar Extra Fine Mild Dark Chocolate Lab tests showed it had the highest fat content of the lineup by far, and also the lowest cocoa solids. Tasters noted a "very creamy" but "waxy" texture and a "one-dimensional" flavor with "very vanilla" notes. In pots de crème, it was "creamy, but strange and acidic." In brownies, it was "funky."