What Is Dark Chocolate?

Sure it's darker in color, but what is dark chocolate? Is it in a bad mood? Is it not looking forward to Valentine's Day for whatever reason? Or is it something much, much simpler?

Dark chocolate is a bittersweet confection made by processing cacao beans along with a small amount of sugar, but no dairy. That's right, dark chocolate is dairy-free. Bet the term for its lighter cousin, milk chocolate, finally makes sense (unless you figured that out along with the whole Easter bunny thing). Dark chocolate bars range in cacao content percentage from the delightfully sweet and balanced 50% to the totally inedible 100%. Don't believe us? Check out the cacao challenge on YouTube, it's simply too bitter and dry to get down the hatch.

It's worth mentioning that without all that added sugar and fat, dark chocolate is actually pretty good for you — high in antioxidants, no saturated fat, heart-healthy flavanols, alleged aphrodisiac. Surely you don't want all that milk weighing you down.

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