Chocolate percentage calculator
Works out what is actually in a bar at a given percentage — and shows why two bars at the same number can be very different.
A 70% dark bar
- From the cacao bean
- 70% of the bar by mass
- — of which cocoa solids
- somewhere between 21% and 38.5%
- — of which cocoa butter
- somewhere between 31.5% and 49%
- Sugar
- roughly 30% — about 9g in a 30g serving
What this cannot tell you
- The split between cocoa solids and cocoa butter is not on the label, so the tool shows a plausible range rather than a figure. That split is much of what determines how a bar tastes.
- Milk chocolate's remainder includes milk solids as well as sugar, so its sugar estimate is less precise than the dark chocolate one.
- Small quantities of lecithin, vanilla and other additions are not modelled.
- It says nothing about quality, flavanol content or how the bar will taste.
Why the solids figure is a range
The percentage on a bar is the combined mass of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The split between them is not declared, and it is much of what determines whether a bar reads as rich or as harsh — a maker chasing a silky melt adds cocoa butter, which raises the percentage while making the bar taste milder. That is the opposite of what the number implies, and it is why a higher percentage is not a better bar.