What is Couverture Chocolate?

Michael and I thought it would be a good idea to add a brief description to our website about the chocolate used for Michael's Chocolates.  

Since Chef Michael started making chocolate confections a few years ago, he has almost always used chocolate from a local company called Guittard.   In fact, all of the chocolate currently available on the website is made with chocolate from Guittard.  Although he uses white and milk chocolate as well, most of his chocolate creations have been made using  L'Etoile Du Nord 64% Cacao.  This is considered a 'dark chocolate' but it does not have bitter flavor of some higher percentage dark chocolate.  In fact, this specific chocolate was chosen for Michael's confections after conducting a blind tasting among friends and family and everyone considered this one the best!  

The chocolate Chef Michael uses is also considered 'couverture' chocolate.  Couveture chocolate is a label given to chocolate that is considered to be of superior quality and taste due to the higher percentage of cocoa butter.  In fact, there are strict industry guidelines that must be followed in order to produce chocolate that can be called 'couverture.'  According to one European standard, couveture chocolate must contain "not less than 35 % total dry cocoa solids, including not less than 31% cocoa butter and not less than 2,5 % of dry non-fat cocoa solids."  Regular chocolate, by the same standard, is required to have "not less than 18 % cocoa butter."  

Since couverture chocolate has a higher percentage of cocoa butter, the final product has much smoother, creamer texture and the appearance has a higher sheen.  In short, it looks better and tastes better!

For more information on the chocolate Michael uses, click here to visit the Guittard website.  If you want to read more about European standards on chocolate that were mentioned above, click on this link.

I hope this was helpful!  Now go eat some chocolate!

Curtis