# Chocolate Questions



## LisanK (Sep 10, 2021)

Hello! I am new to ChefTalk. I was hoping someone could give some advice and opinions on different brands of chocolate for truffles, molding, and dipping. I have been working with Valrhona, but the company I was purchasing from no longer carries the bittersweet. I have found another site, but am unfamiliar with working with what they carry. I am trying to decide between Schokinag, Cacoa-Barry, and Valrhona. Schokinag and C-B are both listed as couverteur, but not Valrhona. Also, Valrhona has a much higher melt temperature. Thank you for your help!


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

I buy 5 lb bags of Callebaut chocolate. Semisweet callets , 
8 Oz bag of Cocoa butter and unsweetened chocolate chunks.
With those 3 you can make anything except milk choc.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Couverture, by definition, is more than 55% cocoa content. Virtually any chocolate/ couverture melts at around 32 cel. However “compound chocolate” has a higher melting point as all the cocoa butter has been replaced with an other vegetable fat.In Europe it is illegal to give this substance any name with chocolate in, but in the U.S. all bets are off.

Callebaut uses the “ raindrops” on their packaging. A cheap, stodgy “ all purpose” chocolate like d8-11 has one raindrop on the packaging, indicating it has very little cocoa butter and therefore is not ideal for dipping/ enrobing. On covertures with more “ raindrops”, the higher the cocoa butter content and therefore the more liquid it is.. You can, as retired baker suggests, thin out a chocolate with pure cocoa butter to help with moulding and dipping, but with pure cocoa butter costing more than decent quality couverture, costs should be taken into consideration.

Just as there is no “ standard flavour” for red wine, there is no standard flavour for chocolate. Everything from cocoa varieties, growing climate, fermentation, blending and processing has an impact on flavour and workability.

You can can get very good quality couverture from Lindt, as well as many South American companies. Do not buy into the hype that only Belgium produces the “ best”, no cocoa has ever been grown in Belgium and likely never will. Also, bear in mind most of the Callebaut couverture available in North America is made in a factory outside of Montreal—from cocoa beans around the world, and with Canadian sugar and milk powder, the only Belgian thing about it is the name. That said, it is good quality stuff, and Callebaut and Cocoberry offer a lot of customer support and work with distributors to provide workshops.

Hope this helps


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