What's in the Best Dark Chocolate?

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Which ingredients are found in the best dark chocolate candy or treat?

Lots of chocolate of course and not much else.

A great candy bar can be made with as few as three ingredients.

Read the wrapper.

If the list of ingredients is long, stop! Drop the candy, and shop on. That candy is probably short on quality and taste.

Don't settle for a substandard product.

Forgo the fake substitutes.

You deserve the best, now learn to distinguish it from the rest.

You don't have to be stealthy or wealthy just wise to pick
the healthy from the junk!

Click here to share your choice for best dark chocolate dessert or your worst with visitors to this page! See what others have written.

Ingredients

Shopping for a great dark chocolate candy bar or treat? Choose the one with the fewest and finest ingredients. Here are the ones you want to find listed on the wrapper...

• real chocolate-aka cacao beans, cocoa liquor, cocoa mass, chocolate liquor, bittersweet chocolate
• sugar, cane sugar, organic raw cane sugar, beet sugar
• cocoa butter and preferably more cocoa butter
• cocoa powder or cocoa-natural, non-alkalized
• soy lecithin
• vanilla, real vanilla, vanilla beans, Bourbon vanilla
• cacao nibs

Real chocolate and/or cocoa powder are essential. Generally, the greater the percentage of chocolate or cocoa the healthier the candy.

Why? Potentially more antioxidants to deliver the health benefits of dark chocolate. Plus there's less room left for sugar with its empty calories!

But sugar is necessary to make it palatable.

Use of the other ingredients is determined by the manufacturer's recipe.

These are the premium ingredients you'll want in any chocolate treat or product. Bar, baked or frozen without these it's not the best.

Try bars from several companies. You may be surprised at the differences in taste.

Bad Bars

Don't waste your money on bars that contain...

• vegetable oils or fats
• PGRP-cheap substitute for costly cocoa butter
  
• chocolate flavoring

Bars containing these ingredients aren't the real deal. Cheap, low quality and little if any health benefits.

Cost

Yep, expect to pay a little bit more for quality ingredients. No surprise there!

But you can save a little money by choosing candy made with cocoa powder like this Lindt Swiss dark chocolate bar. The powder increases the cocoa content without raising the price as much.

Remember it's the total cocoa content that's really important. Make a healthy choice, select a bar with 70 percent cocoa or more.

Best Dark Chocolate Candy?

So which candy bar is best? Is it...

• Dove Dark Chocolate
• Hershey's Special Dark or Cacao Reserve
• Lindt 70%-the Swiss bar mentioned above
• Green and Black's Organic 70% cocoa

or is it one of the thousands of others?

Well, are you choosing a bar for benefits or just flavor?

If you want benefits and flavor, buy the bar with the best ingredients you can afford.  Bars made by...

• Dagoba
• Guittard
• Ghiradelli
• Godiva, etc
  

But Dove and Lindt chocolates are also made with good ingredients.  They're tasty and cost less.  That just might make them the best dark chocolate! 

So which bar has the best flavor? Taste is subjective. Only you and your taste buds can figure that out.

Sample as many bars from different makers as you can.

Each uses their own blend of beans and roasting process.

Search out the subtle flavor differences till you find your favorite.

Great taste usually requires great ingredients. So quality ingredients can help guide you. But ultimately, your personal preference will determine the best dark chocolate bar or treat!

Go back to What is Dark Chocolate

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