Walk through the chocolate aisle at almost any grocery store and you’ll see percentages printed on dark chocolate bars.
60% cacao.
70% cacao.
85% cacao.
Maybe even 90% or higher.
I’ve seen those numbers plenty of times, but until I started becoming more curious about chocolate, I never really stopped to ask a pretty basic question:
What does 70% cacao actually mean?
I assumed that a higher percentage simply meant darker, more bitter chocolate. That’s partly true, but there’s more to that number than I realized.
So, if you’ve ever stood in the chocolate aisle wondering whether you should buy the 60%, 70% or 85% bar, let’s figure out exactly what those percentages are telling us.
What Does the Cacao Percentage on a Chocolate Bar Mean?
When a chocolate bar says 70% cacao, it generally means that 70% of the bar, by weight, comes from ingredients derived from the cacao bean.
Those cacao-derived ingredients can include:
- Cocoa solids
- Cocoa butter
- Cocoa liquor or chocolate liquor
Despite the name, chocolate liquor doesn’t contain alcohol. It’s essentially cacao beans that have been processed into a paste containing both cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
So, imagine a 100-gram chocolate bar labeled 70% cacao.
Approximately 70 grams of that bar come from cacao-derived ingredients.
The remaining 30 grams consist of other ingredients, primarily sugar in a simple dark chocolate bar, although ingredients such as vanilla, lecithin or milk ingredients may also be present depending on the chocolate.
That’s the basic idea behind the percentage.
But here’s where things become more interesting.
Does 70% Cacao Mean 30% Sugar?
Not necessarily.
This was something I initially found confusing.
With a very simple dark chocolate bar containing only cacao and sugar, a 70% cacao bar would be roughly 30% sugar.
But not every chocolate bar has only those two ingredients.
A manufacturer might also add vanilla, lecithin, milk fat or other ingredients. In those chocolates, the remaining 30% isn’t necessarily all sugar.
That’s one reason it’s worth turning the package over and reading the ingredient list instead of relying entirely on the big percentage printed on the front.
Two bars can both say 70% cacao and still have different recipes.
Does 70% Tell Me How Much Cocoa Butter Is in the Chocolate?
No—and this is an important distinction.
That 70% represents the total amount of cacao-derived ingredients, not simply the dark cocoa solids that provide much of chocolate’s characteristic flavor and color.
Cacao beans naturally contain both cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
A chocolate maker can also add additional cocoa butter to change the texture and mouthfeel of the finished chocolate.
That means two 70% bars don’t necessarily contain exactly the same proportions of cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
One might be exceptionally smooth and creamy.
Another might have a firmer texture and much more intense cacao flavor.
Yet both can legitimately be labeled 70% cacao.
Does a Higher Cacao Percentage Mean Darker Chocolate?
Generally, yes.
As the cacao percentage increases, there’s usually less room in the recipe for sugar and other ingredients.
That’s why moving from something like 50% to 70%, 80% or 90% cacao usually produces chocolate that tastes progressively less sweet and more intensely of cacao.
But higher cacao percentage doesn’t automatically mean more bitter.
This is something I’m particularly interested in exploring on Chocolate Curious.
I’ve tried 80% cacao chocolate before, and my immediate impression was simple:
That’s bitter.
I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
My assumption was that 80% chocolate is simply too dark for me.
But I’m beginning to realize that might be an oversimplification.
Why Two 70% Chocolate Bars Can Taste Completely Different
Here’s where the percentage becomes less useful than you might expect.
Imagine buying two chocolate bars.
Both say:
70% cacao.
You might reasonably expect them to taste pretty similar.
They may not.
The flavor of chocolate can be influenced by the variety of cacao, where the cacao was grown, how the beans were fermented and dried, how they were roasted and how the chocolate maker processed them.
One 70% chocolate might taste fairly mild.
Another could be noticeably bitter.
Another might have fruity flavors.
Another might remind you of nuts, coffee, caramel or other flavors—even when those ingredients haven’t actually been added.
That’s one of the things that has made me increasingly curious about chocolate.
Apparently, 70% tells us something important about a chocolate bar, but it doesn’t tell us what that chocolate is going to taste like.
Is 85% Chocolate Better Than 70%?
No.
At least, cacao percentage alone doesn’t make one chocolate better than another.
An 85% chocolate isn’t automatically higher quality than a 70% chocolate, just as a 70% chocolate isn’t automatically better than a good milk chocolate.
The percentage tells you about the composition of the chocolate—not whether you’re going to enjoy it.
That’s an important distinction.
If you love a 60% chocolate but don’t enjoy an 85% bar, there’s no reason you should feel that you need to “graduate” to 85%.
Chocolate isn’t a contest to see who can tolerate the darkest bar.
The best cacao percentage for you is the one you enjoy.
And finding that percentage sounds like a pretty enjoyable experiment to me.
What Cacao Percentage Should a Beginner Try?
If most of your chocolate experience has been traditional milk chocolate and candy bars, jumping immediately to 85% or 90% cacao could be quite a change.
Instead, you could experiment gradually.
Try something around 50–60%.
Then try 70%.
Then perhaps 75–80%.
If you enjoy those, try 85% or higher.
Even better, try chocolates at different percentages side by side.
That’s something I plan on doing myself.
I’d like to taste several bars—perhaps 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% and 90%—and see exactly where my preference changes.
Will I still think 80% is too bitter?
Maybe.
Or perhaps I’ll discover that the particular 80% chocolate I tried simply wasn’t one I liked.
That’s exactly the kind of question I started Chocolate Curious to explore.
Don’t Judge a Chocolate Bar by Its Percentage
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from looking into cacao percentages, it’s this:
The number on the wrapper is useful, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
A 70% cacao chocolate bar gets approximately 70% of its weight from cacao-derived ingredients. The remaining portion comes from ingredients such as sugar and, depending on the recipe, other additions.
But 70% doesn’t tell us where the cacao came from.
It doesn’t tell us how the beans were fermented or roasted.
It doesn’t tell us how much of that cacao percentage comes from cocoa solids versus cocoa butter.
It doesn’t tell us whether the chocolate is high quality.
And most importantly, it doesn’t tell us whether we’re going to like it.
For that, there’s really only one solution.
We’re going to have to taste some chocolate.
And I don’t think that’s a bad problem to have.
My Chocolate Curious Takeaway
Before starting Chocolate Curious, I looked at percentages primarily as a bitterness scale.
Higher number = darker chocolate = more bitter.
Now I understand that the percentage is really a starting point.
It tells me how much of the chocolate comes from cacao ingredients, but there’s much more to discover beyond that number.
So the next time I pick up a 70% chocolate bar, I’m not just going to look at the percentage.
I’m going to look at the ingredients.
I’m going to see where the cacao came from.
And most importantly, I’m going to taste it and decide for myself whether I like it.
That’s what being Chocolate Curious is all about.