Higher percentage means better chocolate.
Does it?
I once read someone compare dark chocolate to salmon.
You could take a beautiful piece of salmon and cook it in the oven for 20 minutes at 200°C. Or you could leave it there for two hours.
After two hours, that salmon would probably look — and taste — like charcoal.
Now ask yourself: how much quality would still be left in that piece of fish?
The same logic applies to chocolate.
A 100% bar does not automatically mean:
- better cacao beans
- better post-harvest work
- better chocolate making
Percentage only tells you how much of the bar comes from cacao ingredients. It says very little about how well the chocolate was actually made.
A poorly processed 100% bar can taste flat, harsh, burnt, dry. Meanwhile, a well-made 70% or even a milk chocolate can show much more complexity, balance, and character.
Higher percentage does not automatically mean higher quality.
Dark chocolate is always healthier than milk chocolate
Is it really that simple?
In craft chocolate, many makers now produce what is called dark milk chocolate: bars with a relatively high cacao content.
In these bars, cacao is still the main ingredient, while offering a different texture and expression from darker styles of chocolate.
And honestly: between a carefully crafted dark milk bar from a bean-to-bar maker and a random industrial 100% bar with questionable cacao and poor processing, I would choose the dark milk every time.
Chocolate quality is not decided by percentage alone.
Cacao is better than chocolate
This idea has become increasingly popular on social media.
But there are a few things worth remembering.
First: chocolate is made from cacao.
Second: calling something “cacao” instead of “chocolate” does not automatically make it better.
It does not guarantee:
- better beans
- better fermentation
- better sourcing
- better processing
- better flavor
To turn cacao beans into cacao mass — what many brands simply market as “cacao” — the beans still go through processing steps similar to chocolate making:
- fermentation
- drying
- roasting
- grinding
- refining
The word itself says very little about quality.
Cacao can be excellent.
Chocolate can be excellent.
And both can also be poorly made.
Raw cacao is superior
What does “raw” actually mean?
Cacao beans are usually fermented and dried before export. During fermentation, temperatures naturally rise. In almost all the cases, the beans are also roasted later to develop flavor and improve stability.
So the definition of “raw cacao” is often unclear.
Some products marketed as raw may be:
- less roasted
- lightly processed
- minimally refined
But “raw” does not automatically mean:
- higher quality
- more ethical
- better tasting
Sometimes roasting is exactly what allows the best flavors in cacao to emerge.
Just like coffee, nuts, or cacao beans, processing is not automatically the enemy. Good processing is often what creates depth, balance, and flavor in the first place.