Chocolate Liquor and Unsweetened Chocolate

Chocolate liquor is produced by finely grinding chocolate nibs through a series of rollers. The word liquor refers to the liquid state of chocolate when it is warm; it does not indicate the presence of alcohol. If chocolate nibs are thought of as chopped nuts, chocolate liquor can be thought of as nut butter; that is, nuts ground to a smooth paste. Unlike almond butter or peanut butter, however, chocolate liquor (also called cocoa liquor) hardens into solid blocks when cooled, because cocoa butter is solid at room temperature. When sold as solid blocks, chocolate liquor is called unsweetened chocolate, cocoa mass or cacaomasse, bitter chocolate, or baking chocolate.