It’s sweet, smooth, crunchy, bitter, decadent, creamy, and just hands-down delicious. Chocolate is arguably one of the best human inventions, and at the same time, one of the worst. I could eat it by the handful, which is healthy for my soul, but not as healthy for my body. 

I want to start by issuing a disclaimer, this is a biased article, towards milk and dark chocolate, and slightly against white chocolate. 

My favorite type of chocolate is dark chocolate. It is bitter, and sweet, and works incredibly well with fruit. For many people, dark chocolate is the lesser choice because of its bitter qualities, but that is exactly why it is my favorite. Since the balance between cocoa and sugar is different in dark chocolate than in its milk and white counterparts, the flavor of the cocoa bean is much stronger. This often drives away younger audiences, because sugar is an extremely attractive ingredient. However, I believe the bitterness contributes to the many flavor pairings possible with dark chocolate.

Every person has different sections of their tongue that contribute to their taste. There are five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Just like colors, tastes on the opposite of the spectrum compliment each other (ex: black and white or sweet and sour). Since dark, semisweet, and bittersweet chocolate are all on the bitter end of the spectrum and lack a strong sweet taste, they work very well with other flavors. I have had the majority of these combinations, and I can say first-hand that they pair very well. I love dark chocolate and raspberries, as well as dark chocolate with sea salt. I have had spicy chocolate as well, but it is lower on my list. 

Next up is milk chocolate. Even though I love to snack on pieces of dark chocolate, there is nothing like a classic Hershey bar, and it is impossible for me to resist the combination of Hershey, marshmallows, and graham crackers. Milk chocolate is the chocolate I am most familiar with when it comes to Halloween candy and Valentine’s Day chocolate, and it is known to be very sweet when it is paired with other fillings, but since there is milk and cocoa, it balances the sugar very well. 

Finally, there is white “chocolate”. The reason I put quotations around the word chocolate is because white chocolate is technically not chocolate; “…it isn’t even chocolate because it does not contain cocoa particles. It is just cocoa butter mixed with sugar, often with a little vanilla added for flavoring.” White chocolate is also absent of the chemicals in chocolate that emit endorphins. Simply put, white chocolate is butter and sugar, falsely marketed as one of the most delicious and popular desserts in the world. 

In short, dark chocolate has the largest variety of flavor pairings, milk chocolate is the nostalgic chocolate that we love, and white chocolate is simply not a real chocolate, but my study of chocolate doesn’t end here! For instance, ruby chocolate, which many people confuse as pink-dyed white chocolate, but it is actually derived from a special type of cocoa bean called the ruby cocoa bean. It gives off a fruity, sweet, and sour taste which is very different from the others, and also pairs well with dark chocolate. 

This sweet delicacy is one that I will never stop enjoying, and one that is celebrated across the world. After all, “chocolate is a vegetable, honest.”