A breed apart
What bumps one chocolate into the premium ranks while leaving others behind? It boils down to this: "Ingredients must be top quality," says Richard Benson, director of research and development, North America Innovation, Barry Callebaut USA, Chicago.
That means pure vanilla and sweeteners that consumers read as "real."
"A baking chip can have dextrose in it to help stop it from smearing," notes Michelle Frame, director of confectionery R&D, Kerry Ingredients & Flavors, Elk Grove Village, IL. "But that's one of the ingredients that, if someone's looking for a premium bar, they're not going to want to see." Instead, old-fashioned sugar is the most common choice, along with evaporated cane juice, which "can add additional brown notes that blend nicely with chocolate's flavor," she says.
For other flavorings, natural is obligatory. Natural flavors often require higher use levels and have a shorter shelf life, and they have a certain transparency that leaves little cover for any faults in the chocolate itself. "You've got nothing but the cocoa beans for the flavor profile," Frame says. That means the beans had better be good.
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