Chocolate liquor

On the right, cacao kernels are being melted into chocolate liquor; on the left, the liquor is being mixed with milk and the other ingredients that make it into chocolate.

Chocolate liquor, also known as cocoa liquor and cocoa mass, is a smooth liquid form of chocolate. Like the cocoa nibs from which it is produced, it contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter in roughly equal proportion.^[1]

It is produced by taking cocoa beans that have been fermented, dried, roasted, and separated from their shells and grinding their center, the cotyledon and melting. The chocolate liquor can then be cooled and molded into blocks known as unsweetened baking chocolate. The liquor and blocks contain roughly 53 percent cocoa butter.

Chocolate liquor is distinct from chocolate liqueur; where chocolate liquor is simply a liquid form of chocolate formed in the processing of cacao beans (thus containing NO alcohol), chocolate liqueur, or crème de cacao, is an alcohol flavored with chocolate.^[2]

References

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