Semisweet Vs Dark Chocolate – What’s the Difference?
Semisweet chocolate is a subcategory of dark chocolate. Dark chocolate
must have a minimum of 35% cocoa solids. The higher the
number of solids, the more bitter the chocolate becomes. Semisweet
chocolate has a cocoa solid content of between 35-65%.
What’s white chocolate? Actually it isn’t even chocolate because it does not contain cocoa particles. It is just cocoa butter mixed with sugar, often with a little vanilla added for flavoring. Since it has no cocoa, the characteristic flavour compounds found in chocolate, compounds like phenyl acetic acid, furfuryl alcohol, dimethyl sulfide, 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol and 1-methylnaphthalene as well as 300 others, are mostly absent. Also absent are anandamide, N-oleoylethanolamine and N- linoleoylethanolamine, the compounds that are supposedly responsible for the pleasure giving effects of chocolate. Why? Because they apparently stimulate the same receptors in the brain as cannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana. So it’s no wonder that chocoholics’ cravings are not satisfied by white chocolate.
