Bittersweet Chocolate Day

What the day is

Bittersweet Chocolate Day is observed on January 10. Bittersweet is dark chocolate with enough sugar to be pleasant and not enough to be sweet, which is a less precise definition than most people assume.

Origin and background

In the United States the labels are governed by standards of identity, and those standards treat bittersweet and semisweet as the same thing. Both fall under sweet chocolate, which must contain at least 35 percent cacao by weight. There is no regulatory line separating them, so a bar marked bittersweet and one marked semisweet can be identical, and which word appears is the manufacturer's choice. In a recipe the two are interchangeable.

The percentage on the label is more informative but still slippery. It states the proportion of the bar that comes from the cacao bean, combining the dark cocoa solids that carry flavor and bitterness with cocoa butter, which is the fat and carries almost none. Two bars both labeled seventy percent can differ considerably, because one may lean on solids and the other on added cocoa butter, which produces a softer, milder bar at the same headline number.

The texture comes from conching, a prolonged mixing and aeration developed in Switzerland in the 1870s. Running the mixture for hours grinds the particles below the size the tongue can detect and drives off harsh volatile acids. Before it, chocolate was gritty.

The supply chain deserves mention on a day about enjoying the stuff. Roughly two thirds of the world's cacao comes from West Africa, grown largely on smallholdings whose farmers earn very little, and child labor on those farms has been repeatedly documented despite twenty years of industry commitments. Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana jointly imposed a premium on sales in 2019 to push more value back to growers.

How to take part

• Taste two bars at the same percentage from different makers and notice how far apart they are.
• Ignore the bittersweet and semisweet labels when baking. Use the percentage.
• Let it sit on the tongue rather than chewing, since the flavor develops as the fat melts.
• Buy from a maker that publishes where its beans come from and what it paid.
• Store it cool and wrapped, away from anything aromatic, which chocolate absorbs readily.