The Chocolate Lab

Turn a percentage into a batch you can weigh. Set the cacao, size it by the nibs you have, and watch the bar — and what you’re allowed to call it — change as you go.

Your formula 70% Bittersweet chocolate US standard name ✓ Cacao beans, cane sugar.

Ingredients: Cacao beans, cane sugar.

Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

Weigh out

1,000 g batch · 38.5% fat

Cacao nibs 700g 70%
Sugar fills the rest 300g 30%

The Chocolate Lab · formula card

70% dark chocolate

US: Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate · EU: Chocolate

1,000 g batch · 38.5% fat, all cocoa butter

	Ingredient	Grams	Share
☐	Cacao nibs	700 g	70%
☐	Sugar	300 g	30%

Ingredients: Cacao beans, cane sugar.

Nibs assumed 55% fat.

jayarrchocolate.com/tools/recipe-formulator/?s=dark2&p=70&b=1000

How the Lab works it out

Every ingredient is a share of the finished batch. Cacao is everything that came from the bean — nibs, any added cocoa butter and any cocoa powder — and sugar fills whatever is left. Size by Nibs I have and the batch grows to fit them: 650 g of nibs at 70% makes a 929 g batch with 279 g of sugar.

Composition comes from two numbers you can change under Inside the bar: the fat in your nibs (about 50–55%) and in your milk powder (whole milk powder is 26–42%). From those the Lab works out cocoa butter, non-fat cocoa solids, milk solids and total fat.

The names on the wrapper

The US and EU set minimum compositions for names like “bittersweet”, “milk chocolate” and “couverture”. The Lab screens your formula against them: the US counts chocolate liquor as 2.2 × the non-fat cocoa solids, while the EU counts total dry cocoa solids. It is a composition check from your own numbers, not a lab result or a label approval.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much sugar goes in a 70% chocolate bar?

In a two-ingredient bar, sugar is the other 30%: 300 g per 1,000 g batch. Working from the nibs you have, sugar = nibs ÷ 0.70 − nibs, so 650 g of nibs needs about 279 g of sugar. Choose “Nibs I have” in the Lab and it does this for you.

Does added cocoa butter count toward the cacao percentage?

Yes. The percentage on a bar is everything that came from cacao: nibs, cocoa butter and any cocoa powder. Milk powder and sugar do not count. A bar made of 65% nibs and 5% added cocoa butter is a 70% bar.

Can I call it “milk chocolate”?

In the US, milk chocolate needs at least 10% chocolate liquor (calculated as 2.2 × non-fat cocoa solids), 3.39% milk fat and 12% total milk solids (21 CFR 163.130). In the EU it needs at least 25% dry cocoa solids, 14% dry milk solids, 2.5% non-fat cocoa solids, 3.5% milk fat and 25% total fat (Directive 2000/36/EC). The Lab checks both as you formulate.

How much fat does chocolate need to flow?

Chocolate Alchemy’s guide puts most dark chocolate at about 35% fat; a 70% two-ingredient bar is about as low as you can go without adding cocoa butter. Milk chocolates often need 40% or more. Particle size, moisture and lecithin also change flow, so treat these as rules of thumb.

How much lecithin should I add?

Chocolate Alchemy uses 0–0.4%. Afoakwa’s textbook notes that 0.1–0.3% lowers viscosity, and that above about 0.5% the yield value rises again. US standards cap emulsifiers at 1% in dark and milk chocolate and 1.5% in white.