The Cocoa Percentage

The more cocoa, the better the chocolate. . . . Any number of gourmets believes this; so do some professionals. Yet the cocoa percentage indicated on a bar of chocolate is no guarantee of quality. A chocolate is delicious, seductive, surprising because of the balance it offers between the proportion of the cocoa fruit and the sugar it contains—just as marmalade or strawberry preserves are good because of a harmonious balance between fruit and sugar.

Just as in a good wine or good olive oil, what is important—and in fact essential in chocolate—is the origin of the fruit, the cocoa bean. It is the terroir, the way in which it has been cultivated, fermented, dried, and then worked and transformed with the great care, sensitivity, and talent that people can provide. The Tanche olive tree, a variety planted and meticulously cultivated in Nyons, France, gives a particularly delicious olive oil, but the same olive tree planted in Greek orchards or harvested differently would produce an oil that is radically different in taste, color, and texture.