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From the episode: Forgotten Cakes
Flavor and creaminess defined our favorites among 10 brands.
Although pastry chefs might debate the merits of various bittersweet chocolates, no one talks about milk chocolate—despite the fact that 65 percent of Americans prefer it to the dark stuff, according to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association. Most of us assume there's no reason to pay "gourmet" prices for a bar of boutique milk chocolate—or is there? To find out, our staff tasted 10 brands of milk chocolate, plain and in chocolate frosting. Tasters were shocked at the wide diversity of flavors and textures among brands.
Milk chocolate must contain at least 10 percent chocolate liquor, which consists of cocoa butter and cocoa solids (the source of chocolate flavor) and 12 percent milk solids; the remainder is sweeteners and flavorings. To figure out exactly what's in each brand, we sent the chocolates out to a food lab, which focused on chocolate solids, fat (the cocoa butter), and sugar.
Most tasters put a premium on flavor. Consequently, the chocolates with the highest percentage of chocolate solids were the taste-test winners. Overly sweet chocolates or brands with little chocolate flavor were downgraded. A second (smaller) group of tasters focused on texture. They placed a premium on creaminess, giving high marks to the brand that contained the most fat among the brands tested.
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