@Tom
10/23/12 11:22:54PM
I have attached an exel calculator that I use a lot basically because I make chocolate myself and like to see what other formulations manufacturers use. This only works for dark chocolate, so should be fine for your use. You just plug in % cocoa and % total fat and the calculator will spit out % cocoa butter, % cocoa liquor and % sugar.
For example the Valrhona El Pedregal bar on my desk says it is a 64% chocolate and in the nutritional info says 38.8g total fat in 100g so 38.8%. Plug that into the calculator and it tells me that the formulation for this is 36% sugar, 52.5% cocoa liquor and 11.5% cocoa butter.
The calculator assumes the following:
Formulation calculators assume the following:
Dark chocolate is composed of sugar, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter. This calculation doesn't take into account the small amount of lecithin or vanilla added to certain chocolates.
Calculator doesn't work if cocoa powder has been used as an ingredient in the chocolate.
Calculators assume that cocoa liquor (which is just crushed cocoa beans) contains 52% fat.
Calculators use Australian definition of cocoa solids which is cocoa solids is cocoa liquor + cocoa butter.
@Gap
10/24/12 12:13:11AM
Try this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_chocolate
Under the European Union heading are several categories of chocolate and what their requirements are. In that table is listed Couverture Chocolate (Dark) and Milk Couverture. From my understanding, White chocolate is generally not considered a couverture due to the lower amount of fat - someone may correct me on that. If you want to do a bit of Googling, it's easy enough to find the EU standards in full.
@dsfg
10/24/12 09:20:54AM
Tom - thanks. I think that will be useful. Unfortunately, you can't always get the fat number until you have the chocolate in hand. It would be so much easier if they broke down the cocoa solids vs. cocoa butter for chocolate that isn't intended directly for eating.
@Gap
10/24/12 04:50:41PM
Sorry - posted this in the wrong discussion y'day. Page 3 of this article might come in handy as well
http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/chocolate/couverture-chocolate3.asp
Under the heading How Couverture is different from Eating Chocolate.
@RawChocolateLife
06/05/16 01:41:45PM
When you see that couverture is a higher percentage of cocoa butter it usually states it's around 32% to 39%. Is this in relation to the cocoa liquor or is it a total including the sugar.
@Gap
06/05/16 06:50:20PM
Don't forget liquor has cocoa butter in it (anywhere from 47-56%). If we assume the liquor is 50% cocoa butter then, as an example,
70% chocolate made up of 60% liquor + 10% cocoa butter
Total cocoa butter = 60% x 50% + 10% = 40% total cocoa butter in the chocolate
OR
70% chocolate made up of 65% liquor + 5% cocoa butter
Total cocoa butter = 65% x 50% + 5% = 37.5% total cocoa butter in the chocolate
@RawChocolateLife
06/05/16 07:14:30PM
That can't be right though because then by that definition all chocolate made with liquor is also called couverture. If the definition of couverture is a butter content between 32 and 39% then just having a 70% chocolate made with liquor and no added butter is considered couverture and that just does not make sense because couverture is supposed to be more rich than just plain liquor on its own.
@Gap
06/05/16 10:13:55PM
That can't be right though because then by that definition all chocolate made with liquor is also called couverture.
I disagree. What about a chocolate made with 50% liquor and 50% sugar. That would have ~25% cocoa butter which would not meet the EU minimum of 31% (I'm basing that 31% on a quick look at the Wikipedia page linked above for chocolate standards, I haven't checked its up-to-date) - note, different countries have different standards as well.
couverture is supposed to be more rich than just plain liquor on its own.
Once again, I disagree. Couverture is supposed to have more cocoa butter than regular eating chocolate. Basically that makes it easier to work with when making moulded chocolates or dipped chocolates.
I think the Wikipedia page linked above gives a good illustration (although I'm not sure if it is the latest in standards). For EU standards, both chocolate and couverture chocolate must have 35%+ total dry cocoa solids. But chocolate need only have 18%+ cocoa butter, whereas couverture must have 31%+ cocoa butter.