{{short description|Pure cocoa mass in solid or semi-solid form}} {{for|the alcoholic drink made with chocolate|Chocolate liqueur}} {{Infobox prepared food | name = Chocolate liquor | image = 100^ chocolate - Flickr - jlodder.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = Chocolate liquor wafers | alternate_name = Cocoa liquor, cocoa paste, cocoa mass | country = | region = | creator = | course = | type = Chocolate | served = | main_ingredient = Cocoa beans | variations = | calories = | other = }}
'''Chocolate liquor''', also called '''cocoa liquor''', '''paste''' or '''mass''',{{efn|Rarely ''cocoa solids''}} is pure cocoa in liquid or semi-solid form.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=163.111|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030915172119/http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?FR=163.111|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 15, 2003|title=CFR – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21|website=Databases|access-date=22 April 2018|location=United States|publisher=Food and Drug Administration}}</ref> It is produced from cocoa bean nibs that have been fermented, dried, roasted, and separated from their skins. The nibs are ground to the point cocoa butter is released from the cells of the bean and melted, which turns cocoa into a paste and then into a free-flowing liquid.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.google.ch/books/edition/Chocolate_Science_and_Technology/xokfDAAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate Science and Technology | publisher=Wiley | author=Afoakwa, Emmanuel Ohene | year=2016 | pages=111 | quote=Grinding of nib cells releases the cocoa butter into liquor with particle size up to 30 μm}}</ref>
The liquor is either cooled and molded into blocks, which can be used as unsweetened baking chocolate, or put under high pressure, separating out cocoa butter and leaving behind a dry cake of defatted cocoa.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/articles/sorting-out-chocolate.aspx |title=Sorting Out Chocolate |pages=74, 76 |last=Stevens |first=Molly |date=January 2001 |number=42 |magazine=Fine Cooking |issn=1072-5121 |publisher=Taunton Press |access-date=2007-07-14 |archive-date=2008-04-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421083045/http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/articles/sorting-out-chocolate.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Terrio |first=Susan J |title=Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate |publisher=University of California Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-520-22125-7 |pages=278}}</ref> Its main use (often with additional cocoa butter) is in making chocolate.
In this context, the word ''liquor'' is not in reference to alcohol, but means 'a liquid' or 'a fluid'.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.google.ch/books/edition/Food_Chemistry/RT_zCAAAQBAJ | title=Food Chemistry | publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg | year=2013 | pages=900 | quote=The resultant product is a homogeneous mobile paste, a flowing cocoa mass or cocoa liquor.}}</ref>
American legislation treats chocolate liquor as a chocolate product.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=163.111 |title=CFR – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 |publisher=Food and Drug Administration |accessdate=22 January 2025 |quote=Nomenclature. The name of the food is "chocolate liquor", "chocolate", "unsweetened chocolate", "bitter chocolate", "baking chocolate", "cooking chocolate", "chocolate coating", or "unsweetened chocolate coating".}}</ref> European legislation treats it as a cocoa product until sugar is added.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32000L0036 | title=Directive 2000/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 June 2000 relating to cocoa and chocolate products intended for human consumption | publisher=EUR-Lex: Access to European Union law | accessdate=22 January 2025 | quote=[Chocolate] designates the product obtained from cocoa products and sugars...}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.20min.ch/fr/story/sans-sucre-le-chocolat-en-perd-son-appellation-316639661560 | title=Sans sucre, le chocolat en perd son appellation | publisher=20 minutes | date=21 February 2021 | accessdate=22 January 2025 | quote=Les produits chocolatés dans lesquels les sucres sont totalement absents ne relèvent plus de la définition du chocolat. | trans-quote=Chocolate products in which sugars are completely absent no longer fall within the definition of chocolate.}}</ref>
Chocolate liquor contains roughly 53% cocoa butter (fat), 17% carbohydrates, 11% protein, 6% tannins, and 1.5% theobromine.<ref>Wolke, Robert L. (2005). ''What Einstein Told His Cook 2, The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science'' (Hardcover). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 433. {{ISBN|0-393-05869-7}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jGYMiTMhp9UC&pg=PA433]</ref>
<gallery widths=150 class="center> File:CacaoChonita22.JPG|Manually ground cocoa File:Cocoa paste.jpg|Cocoa turning into a paste in a melanger File:Ghirardelli Chocolate Fountain.jpg|Fully ground cocoa exiting from a cocoa mill File:Chocolat Bonnat. 100%.jpg|Tempered and molded cocoa liquor </gallery>
==See also== * Types of chocolate * {{section link|Chocolate|Grinding and blending}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==Sources== {{reflist}}
{{Chocolate}}
Category:Components of chocolate
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