Chocolate Glossary: 85 Terms Explained
Short definitions of the terms chocolate makers use.
B
Bake-Stable Chocolate
Bake-stable chocolate is chocolate or compound made to hold its shape in the oven: the fat still melts, but less fat or a solid network stops it spreading.
Where you'll see it: In bakery ingredient catalogs and on chip packaging, often as 'bake-stable' or 'bake-proof'.
Ball Mill
A ball mill refines chocolate or fillings in a vessel packed with small steel or ceramic balls, stirred by a rotating shaft so they grind the particles.
Where you'll see it: On spec sheets for chocolate, compound coating, spread and filling production, from laboratory batch units to continuous industrial lines.
Bean-to-Bar
Bean-to-bar describes a maker who turns fermented, dried cocoa beans into finished chocolate in-house instead of starting from bought chocolate.
Where you'll see it: On craft bar wrappers and maker websites, and as the name of a whole category of small chocolate businesses. The term has no official definition.
Blond Chocolate
Blond chocolate is white chocolate cooked slowly until its milk and sugar brown, giving it a caramel color and a toasty, biscuit-like flavor.
Where you'll see it: On specialty bars and in pastry recipes, where it may also be sold as caramelized white chocolate.
Bonbon
A bonbon is a bite-size filled chocolate, made either in a mold with a chocolate shell or by coating a firm center in chocolate.
Where you'll see it: In chocolate shops and gift boxes, where the same item may be called a praline or simply a chocolate depending on the country.
C
Cacao
Cacao is the tree that grows cocoa beans, and the name many people use for its pods and raw beans. Cocoa usually means the processed products.
Where you'll see it: On health-food packaging and craft bar wrappers, where 'cacao' is often used to suggest a less processed product, though the two words are used loosely.
CE Marking
CE marking is the mark a manufacturer puts on machinery and other products covered by EU rules that call for it, to declare that they meet those rules.
Where you'll see it: On the nameplate of machines sold in the EU, and in the conformity documents a buyer should ask a vendor for.
Chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from cocoa products and sugar. What may legally be called chocolate, and how much cocoa it needs, depends on the country.
Where you'll see it: On every wrapper; the name is protected in many markets, so products that do not qualify use words such as 'coating' instead.
Chocolate Aging
Chocolate aging is resting finished chocolate in blocks for a period before tempering and molding. Makers who do it say the flavor settles and rounds out.
Where you'll see it: In bean-to-bar makers' process notes and, now and then, on wrappers that mention an aged batch.
Chocolate Bloom
Chocolate bloom is the white or gray film, streaks or spots on a chocolate surface, left by fat or sugar crystallizing at the top.
Where you'll see it: On bars stored somewhere warm or damp, and on homemade bonbons a few days after they were made.
Chocolate Chips
Chocolate chips are small pieces of chocolate or compound, typically dropped or deposited onto a cooled belt, sold for baking and snacking.
Where you'll see it: In baking aisles, cookie recipes and B2B ingredient catalogs, which also list drops and chunks in different sizes.
Chocolate Shell
A chocolate shell is the thin outer wall of a molded bonbon, made by filling a mold with tempered chocolate and pouring the excess back out.
Where you'll see it: In bonbon recipes, where the shell is filled and then closed with a layer of chocolate called the cap.
Cocoa Bean
A cocoa bean is the seed of the cacao tree. Once fermented and dried, it is the raw material every chocolate maker starts from.
Where you'll see it: On bean-to-bar wrappers that name where the beans were grown, and in cocoa trade and price reports.
Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter is the natural fat of the cocoa bean, usually pressed out of cocoa liquor. It sets hard at room temperature and melts close to body temperature.
Where you'll see it: On ingredient lists of chocolate and white chocolate, and in the label rules that separate chocolate from compound coatings.
Cocoa Butter Equivalent (CBE)
A cocoa butter equivalent is a vegetable fat that behaves like cocoa butter and can be tempered with it. Rules on using it in chocolate vary by country.
Where you'll see it: On ingredient lists as named vegetable fats such as shea or illipe, and on EU chocolate labels that carry the statement 'contains vegetable fats in addition to cocoa butter'.
Cocoa Butter Polymorphs
Cocoa butter polymorphs are the six crystal forms, I to VI, that cocoa butter can set in. Form V is the one tempering aims for.
Where you'll see it: In tempering guides, food-science papers and the technical notes that come with tempering machines.
Cocoa Butter Silk
Cocoa butter silk is cocoa butter held at a steady warm temperature until it forms stable crystals and turns creamy. A little of it tempers chocolate.
Where you'll see it: In professional pastry recipes and advanced home tempering guides, as an alternative to seeding with chopped chocolate.
Cocoa Liquor
Cocoa liquor is cocoa nibs ground into a smooth paste that is liquid when warm. It contains no alcohol and is also called cocoa mass.
Where you'll see it: On ingredient lists as cocoa mass, chocolate liquor or cocoa liquor, depending on the country.
Cocoa Nibs
Cocoa nibs are broken pieces of shelled cocoa bean. Ground, they become cocoa liquor; whole, they are sold as a crunchy ingredient.
Where you'll see it: In the factory flow between winnowing and grinding, and on grocery shelves as a topping for baking and breakfast bowls.
Cocoa Percentage
Cocoa percentage is the minimum share of cocoa butter and fat-free cocoa solids in a bar's chocolate, measured dry, with nuts or fillings left out.
Where you'll see it: On wrappers. In the EU, dark and milk chocolate must state it as cocoa solids: …% minimum, while white chocolate doesn't have to. US rules don't require it.
Cocoa Pod
A cocoa pod is the fruit of the cacao tree. It grows straight from the trunk and thick branches and holds the beans in a sweet white pulp.
Where you'll see it: In farm photos and in the first step of any explanation of how chocolate is made.
Cocoa Powder
Cocoa powder is the solid cake left after much of the cocoa butter is pressed out of cocoa liquor, ground into a fine powder.
Where you'll see it: In baking aisles, labeled natural or Dutch-processed, and on the ingredient lists of compound coatings.
Cocoa Solids
Cocoa solids are the parts of a product that come from the cocoa bean. Some definitions include cocoa butter; others mean only the fat-free part.
Where you'll see it: On chocolate labels as a minimum percentage, and in the legal standards for each type of chocolate.
COCOBOD
COCOBOD (Ghana Cocoa Board) is the state body that oversees Ghana's cocoa sector, from setting the price paid to farmers to selling beans abroad.
Where you'll see it: In news on cocoa prices and harvests, and in sourcing notes for chocolate made with Ghanaian beans.
Colored Cocoa Butter
Colored cocoa butter is cocoa butter mixed with food coloring that disperses or dissolves in fat, often lake pigments, used to decorate bonbon molds.
Where you'll see it: In pastry supply shops and bonbon recipes; check that the coloring is approved for food where you live.
Compound Chocolate
Compound chocolate is a coating made with cocoa powder, sugar and a vegetable fat in place of most or all cocoa butter. It usually sets without tempering.
Where you'll see it: On labels of biscuits, cake decorations and dipping wafers, often as 'coating' or 'chocolate-flavored' rather than chocolate.
Conching
Conching is long mixing of chocolate that lowers its load of volatile compounds and turns a thick paste into smooth, flowing chocolate.
Where you'll see it: On machine spec sheets for conches and refiner-conches, and in makers' notes on how a batch was made.
Cooling Tunnel
A cooling tunnel is an enclosed, chilled section of the line where molded or coated chocolate sets, cooled by air and by contact with the cold belt or mold.
Where you'll see it: On line layouts after the molding, enrobing or depositing stage, and on spec sheets that list its length and cooling zones.
Couverture
Couverture is chocolate with a higher share of cocoa butter, made to melt thin and coat evenly. Whether the name has a legal meaning depends on the country.
Where you'll see it: On bags of chocolate sold to pastry chefs, in professional recipes and on the tempering instructions printed on the pack.
Cut Test
A cut test is a quality check where a sample of cocoa beans is sliced open lengthwise to look for poor fermentation, mold and insect damage.
Where you'll see it: On cocoa bean quality certificates and in a maker's checks when a new lot of beans arrives.
D
Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate is chocolate made mainly from cocoa and sugar, with little or no milk. The cocoa percentage on the wrapper says more than the word dark.
Where you'll see it: On bar wrappers next to a cocoa percentage, and on US packaging as semisweet or bittersweet.
Depositing
Depositing is dosing measured amounts of liquid chocolate or filling through nozzles into molds or onto a belt. Drops are often made this way.
Where you'll see it: On spec sheets for depositors and drop lines, which list belt width, cycles per minute and output.
Drying
Drying is the step after fermentation where cocoa beans lose moisture, in the sun or in dryers, so they can be stored and shipped without spoiling.
Where you'll see it: In bean quality reports and tasting notes, where beans dried over an open fire can pick up a smoky off-flavor.
Dutch-Process Cocoa
Dutch-process cocoa is cocoa treated with an alkali, which darkens its color, softens its flavor and helps the powder mix into liquids.
Where you'll see it: On cocoa powder tins and ingredient lists as 'alkalized', 'processed with alkali' or 'Dutch-process'.
E
Enrobing
Enrobing is coating a product by passing it through a falling curtain of melted chocolate. Factories use it for biscuits, wafer bars and filled centers.
Where you'll see it: On production line layouts and enrober spec sheets, and in confectionery recipes that call for enrobing chocolate.
F
Fat Bloom
Fat bloom is a grayish, often streaky film on chocolate, formed when cocoa butter crystals change or fat from a filling reaches the surface.
Where you'll see it: On poorly tempered chocolate, on bars that went through warm and cool spells, and on nut-filled bonbons.
Fat Migration
Fat migration is the movement of soft fats, such as nut oils, from a filling into the chocolate around it, which softens the shell and can cause bloom.
Where you'll see it: In shelf-life discussions of pralines and nut-filled bonbons, and in troubleshooting guides for bloom.
Fermentation
Fermentation is the farm step where yeasts and bacteria break down the pulp on fresh cocoa beans, kill the seed and start the chemistry of chocolate flavor.
Where you'll see it: In craft makers' notes on how their beans were handled at origin, and in bean quality reports.
Fine Flavor Cocoa
Fine flavor cocoa is the trade category for beans valued for distinct aroma, unlike bulk cocoa. The ICCO lists the countries that export it and their share.
Where you'll see it: In cocoa trade reports, in ICCO documents (spelled 'fine flavour' or 'fine or flavour') and in the marketing of origin bars.
Finish
The finish is the flavor that stays after the chocolate has melted and been swallowed or spat out, and how long it lasts.
Where you'll see it: In tasting notes and on tasting cards, usually as the last line, described as short or long.
Flavor Wheel
A flavor wheel is a circular chart of tasting words, with broad groups in the center and more specific notes toward the edge.
Where you'll see it: At organized tastings, in professional judging and on some craft makers' websites.
Food Contact Materials
Food contact materials are anything that touches food on its way to the eater: machine parts, molds, conveyor belts and packaging.
Where you'll see it: On machine spec sheets and supplier declarations, and in EU rules that bar these materials from passing anything into food that could harm health or change its composition, taste or smell.
G
Ganache
Ganache is a smooth mix of chocolate and cream, or another liquid, used to fill bonbons and truffles, glaze cakes and pipe decorations.
Where you'll see it: In bonbon and truffle recipes and on pastry shop menus, often flavored with fruit, tea or spirits.
Gianduja
Gianduja is a smooth blend of chocolate and finely ground hazelnuts, used as a filling, as the base of spreads or eaten on its own.
Where you'll see it: On Italian chocolates and pastry recipes, and in the ingredient lists of hazelnut fillings.
H
HACCP
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is a food safety system that finds significant hazards and controls them; some need only good hygiene.
Where you'll see it: In food hygiene rules in many markets, in retailer and buyer audits, and in factory planning checklists.
I
ICCO
The ICCO (International Cocoa Organization) is an intergovernmental body of cocoa-producing and cocoa-consuming countries that publishes cocoa market data.
Where you'll see it: As the source line under cocoa production figures, price charts and fine flavor classifications.
L
Lauric Fat
Lauric fats are vegetable fats rich in lauric acid, mainly palm kernel and coconut oil. They set hard without tempering but mix poorly with cocoa butter.
Where you'll see it: On compound coating labels as palm kernel or coconut fat, usually alongside cocoa powder rather than cocoa liquor.
Lecithin
Lecithin is an emulsifier, usually from soy or sunflower, added to chocolate in small amounts to make it flow more easily.
Where you'll see it: On ingredient lists as soy lecithin, sunflower lecithin or, in the EU, E322.
M
Melanger
A melanger is a stone grinder: heavy granite wheels roll over a granite base in a turning drum, grinding nibs and sugar into chocolate.
Where you'll see it: In bean-to-bar workshops and on hobby equipment lists, where one machine often handles refining and part of the conching.
Milk Chocolate
Milk chocolate is chocolate made with milk solids as well as cocoa and sugar. The legal minimums for cocoa and milk content vary by country.
Where you'll see it: On wrappers and ingredient lists, where the milk may appear as milk powder, whole milk powder or milk crumb.
Milk Solids
Milk solids are what remains of milk once the water is removed: milk fat, milk proteins and lactose. They give milk and white chocolate their dairy flavor.
Where you'll see it: In the legal standards for milk and white chocolate, and in ingredient lists as milk powder or other dairy ingredients.
Molding
Molding is pouring tempered chocolate into molds, shaking out air bubbles, then cooling it until it sets and releases as bars, shells or figures.
Where you'll see it: On production line layouts, where it can mean solid, shell (including cold-stamped) or one-shot molding, and in home recipes for bars and bonbons.
Mouthfeel
Mouthfeel is how chocolate feels as it melts: smooth or gritty, fast or slow, clean or coating. It depends on particle size, fat and temper.
Where you'll see it: In tasting notes, competition score sheets and makers' notes on refining.
N
Nacional
Nacional is a cacao variety from Ecuador whose beans are commonly described as floral. Ecuadorian cocoa from it is often sold as Arriba.
Where you'll see it: On Ecuadorian origin bars and in cocoa sourcing lists.
Non-Lauric Fat
Non-lauric fats cover two groups: cocoa butter replacers from palm, rapeseed or soy for compound coatings, and cocoa butter equivalents used in chocolate.
Where you'll see it: On compound coating labels and fat supplier data sheets, often described as fractionated or hydrogenated vegetable fat.
O
One-Shot Depositing
One-shot depositing makes a filled piece in one step, pouring shell and filling together through nested nozzles into a mold or, for filled drops, onto a belt.
Where you'll see it: On spec sheets for molding lines and in comparisons of solid, shell and one-shot molding.
P
Palate Cleanser
A palate cleanser is something plain, such as an unsalted cracker and a sip of water, taken between samples so one flavor does not carry into the next.
Where you'll see it: In tasting guides and on the table at organized chocolate tastings.
Particle Size
Particle size is how big the solid pieces in chocolate are after refining. It decides whether chocolate feels smooth or gritty.
Where you'll see it: On refiner spec sheets and in makers' quality checks, measured with a laser instrument, a micrometer that catches only the largest particles, or a grindometer read by eye.
PGPR
PGPR (polyglycerol polyricinoleate) is an emulsifier made partly from castor oil that mainly lowers the force needed to get chocolate flowing.
Where you'll see it: On ingredient lists, sometimes as E476 in the EU, often right after lecithin.
Polycarbonate Mold
A polycarbonate mold is a rigid, clear plastic mold for bars and bonbons. Kept clean and free of scratches, it releases chocolate cleanly.
Where you'll see it: In bonbon recipes and pastry supply shops, next to flexible silicone and thin plastic molds.
Praline
Praline means two different things: in Belgium and much of Europe, a filled chocolate; in France and the US, nuts cooked in caramelized sugar.
Where you'll see it: On Belgian chocolate boxes, in French pastry recipes as praliné paste, and in American candy shops selling pecan pralines.
Private Label
Private label is a product made by one company and sold under another's brand, usually a retailer's own label.
Where you'll see it: On supermarket own-brand chocolate, and in factory business plans that list who the products will be sold to.
R
Refiner-Conche
A refiner-conche is a single machine that refines and conches chocolate in the same vessel, in place of separate refining and conching steps.
Where you'll see it: On equipment lists for small and mid-size production, and in vendor comparisons of refining systems.
Refining
Refining is grinding chocolate mass until its sugar, cocoa and milk particles are small enough that most people no longer notice grit.
Where you'll see it: On equipment lists and spec sheets for melangers, roller refiners and ball mills, and in makers' notes on texture.
RFQ (Request for Quotation)
An RFQ (request for quotation) is a document a buyer sends to suppliers describing what they need, so each can reply with a price and an offer.
Where you'll see it: In equipment purchasing for a chocolate line, where vendors are compared against the same written requirements.
Roast Profile
A roast profile is the plan of time and temperature a maker follows when roasting a batch of cocoa beans, often changed for each origin.
Where you'll see it: On roaster control screens and in makers' batch logs.
Roasting
Roasting is heating cocoa beans or nibs to develop chocolate flavor; when whole beans are roasted, it also loosens the shell before cracking.
Where you'll see it: In makers' process notes and roast logs, and on equipment lists for bean-to-bar workshops.
Roller Refiner
A roller refiner crushes and shears chocolate paste between steel rolls turning at different speeds. Five-roll refiners are a common industrial type.
Where you'll see it: On industrial line layouts, usually after a mixer and a pre-refiner and before the conche.
Ruby Chocolate
Ruby is a pink chocolate, a recent addition to the shelf, with no added coloring. An EU rule describes how citric acid turns polyphenol-rich cocoa pink.
Where you'll see it: On specialty bars and pastry menus. In the US it is sold under a temporary FDA market-test permit, not a standard; in the EU it has no category of its own.
S
Seeding
Seeding is a tempering method where chopped, already tempered chocolate is stirred into melted chocolate to cool it and pass on stable crystals.
Where you'll see it: In home tempering tutorials and in pastry recipes that say to melt part of the chocolate and stir in the rest.
Semisweet and Bittersweet Chocolate
Semisweet and bittersweet are names for dark chocolate on US labels and in some other regions. US rules set one minimum for both, with no line between them.
Where you'll see it: On US baking chocolate and chip packaging, and in American recipes that call for one or the other.
Single Origin
Single origin chocolate is made from beans grown in one place. That place can be a country, a region or a single farm; there is no fixed rule.
Where you'll see it: On the front of craft bar wrappers, usually next to the country or farm name and the cocoa percentage.
Snap
Snap is the clean, sharp break of a well-tempered piece of chocolate. A dull bend or crumble usually points to poor temper, a soft recipe or warmth.
Where you'll see it: In tasting notes and reviews, and in tempering tutorials as the first sign that a batch worked.
Sugar Bloom
Sugar bloom is a dry, white, dusty coating on chocolate, left when moisture dissolves sugar at the surface and then evaporates.
Where you'll see it: On chocolate taken from the fridge into a warm, humid room, where water condenses on the surface.
T
Tabling
Tabling is a tempering method where part of the melted chocolate is spread and worked on a marble slab until it thickens, then stirred back in.
Where you'll see it: In pastry school courses and chocolatier videos, where it is done with a palette knife and a scraper.
Temper Curve
A temper curve is the temperature path chocolate follows while tempering: fully melted, cooled to form crystals, then gently rewarmed.
Where you'll see it: On couverture packaging as a set of three temperatures, and in factories as the cooling curve a temper meter draws from a sample.
Temper Test
A temper test is a quick check that chocolate is in temper: a thin smear on a strip, knife or spoon should set glossy and firm at room temperature.
Where you'll see it: In tempering tutorials and chocolatier workshops, usually done on a strip of baking paper or the tip of a knife.
Tempering
Tempering is heating, cooling and stirring chocolate so its cocoa butter sets in one stable crystal form, giving gloss, a clean snap and easy release.
Where you'll see it: In recipes for bonbons and bars, on couverture packaging that lists tempering temperatures, and on tempering machine spec sheets.
Tempering Machine
A tempering machine melts, cools and rewarms chocolate automatically and keeps it in temper while it is used for molding, dipping or enrobing.
Where you'll see it: In chocolatier shops as tabletop units, and in factories as continuous temperers feeding a molding or enrobing line.
Turnkey Line
A turnkey line is a complete production line that one supplier designs, installs and starts up, so the buyer takes over a working process.
Where you'll see it: In vendor offers and buyer's guides, set against buying separate machines from several suppliers.
V
Viscosity
Viscosity is how thick melted chocolate is, or how strongly it resists flowing. It decides how chocolate coats, fills molds and forms shells.
Where you'll see it: On couverture data sheets and some packaging as a fluidity rating, and in makers' quality checks.
W
Water Activity
Water activity compares a food's water vapor pressure with that of pure water, showing how much of its water is free to support microbes and chemical change.
Where you'll see it: In professional ganache recipes and shelf-life guidance for filled chocolates, often written as aw.
White Chocolate
White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, milk solids and sugar, with none of the dark cocoa solids. The EU and the US each set legal minimums for it.
Where you'll see it: On wrappers and baking packs. Products that replace the cocoa butter with other fats can't use the name and are sold under trade names such as white coating. In the EU, white chocolate may contain a small share of approved vegetable fats if the label says so.
Winnowing
Winnowing is separating the shell from cracked cocoa beans, usually with a stream of air, so that mostly nibs go on to grinding.
Where you'll see it: On bean-to-bar equipment lists, often paired with cracking as one machine or one step.
Y
Yield Value
Yield value is the force needed to get melted chocolate to start flowing. It shapes how a coating settles and how well chocolate holds a shape.
Where you'll see it: On technical data sheets next to plastic viscosity, and in discussions of emulsifiers such as PGPR.