How to choose chocolate

Ingredients are listed by descending weight, which makes the list more informative than the front of the pack. Cocoa mass first means the bar is more cacao than sugar. Vegetable fat other than cocoa butter means it may not be chocolate in your jurisdiction. Vanillin rather than vanilla, and a long list of emulsifiers, indicate industrial formulation — neither is a fault, and both are information the front is not giving you.

For eating, choose on percentage and origin. For coating or moulding, buy couverture. For baking, an ordinary dark bar of a stated percentage. For chunks that stay whole in a cookie, chips. Buying an expensive single-origin bar to melt into a brownie batter spends money on qualities the bake will destroy.

A named region, estate or harvest year carries real information because it is specific and checkable. 'Single-origin' alone can mean an entire country. 'Artisan', 'craft', 'small-batch', 'raw' and 'premium' have no definition and no audit behind them. A maker who knows their supply chain generally says the specific things.

A well-tempered bar has an even sheen and snaps cleanly at room temperature. A dull surface, a soft bend or grey streaking indicate poor tempering or poor storage. That tells you something about how the bar was made and kept before you have tasted anything.