I'd like to know which of the ordinary American type chocolates have the
highest butterfat---I can't seem to find a butterfat number on any of
the packages in my grocery store. I'm talking about Nestle's,
Ghirardelli, Guittard, etc. the kind of common American chocolate
available at a chain supermarket, since thats whats available where I
live. Any ideas?

phbp

Patrick Porter wrote:

> I'd like to know which of the ordinary American type chocolates
> have the highest butterfat---I can't seem to find a butterfat number
> on any of the packages in my grocery store.

Isn't it zero? I thought cocoa butter was required by law
to be the fat in chocolate in the U.S.

NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 03:05:36 GMT, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>Patrick Porter wrote:
>
>> I'd like to know which of the ordinary American type chocolates
>> have the highest butterfat---I can't seem to find a butterfat number
>> on any of the packages in my grocery store.
>
>Isn't it zero? I thought cocoa butter was required by law
>to be the fat in chocolate in the U.S.
>
Only in Europe, and even that is now being challenged. The EU insists
that the *only* type of fat in chocolate should be cocoa butter, if
the item is to be called "chocolate" and not "chocolate flavoured".
The British want to change that an allow anything with up to 5%
vegetable fats to still be called "chocolate" and not be forced to put
the insulting label of "chocolate flavoured" on their products. The
Europeans are fighting it tooth and nail!

In the US, I believe you can have vegetable fats _in addition_ to
cocoa butter in a product and still call it "chocolate" - but I'm not
sure what the percentage is.


--
Davida Chazan (The Chocolate Lady)
<davida @ jdc . org . il>
~*~*~*~*~*~
"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of
chocolate."
--Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003)
~*~*~*~*~*~

Allright then---which of the commonly available supermarket chocolates
have the highest concentration of cocoa butter in them? how can I tell?

phbp

at Mon, 01 Dec 2003 03:05:36 GMT in >,
(Mark Thorson) wrote :

>Patrick Porter wrote:
>
>> I'd like to know which of the ordinary American type chocolates
>> have the highest butterfat---I can't seem to find a butterfat number
>> on any of the packages in my grocery store.
>
>Isn't it zero? I thought cocoa butter was required by law
>to be the fat in chocolate in the U.S.

It's not going to be zero if it's milk chocolate, and thus in that case it
would be whichever manufacturer happened to have the greatest amount of
milk in the chocolate. I've never seen exact figures claimed, but hazarding
a guess, based on past experience, I suspect it may be Mercken's.

It's not even necessarily going to be zero if it's dark chocolate - many
manufacturers add butterfat to their dark chocolate to improve the texture.
Dove (from M&M/Mars) and Hershey's Special Dark both have some butterfat.
Dove is probably higher than Hershey's.

As far as cocoa butter is concerned, again, no one seems to be willing to
claim specifics, but Guittard's Gourmet Bittersweet is a strong contender,
based on its melt and temper profile.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

I got two bags of Dove holiday chocolate yesterday, plain dark. 2 for
$4. Have to unwrap each piece and chop, but it will do.
p