Somewhere along the way, admitting you prefer milk chocolate became a confession. I would like to push back on that, professionally.
Is milk chocolate actually good? Yes, when it is actually milk chocolate. The version that earned the bad reputation is the commodity bar: legally it only needs 10% cacao in this country, and the rest is mostly sugar. Real milk chocolate, made with serious cacao content and full cream milk, is one of the most satisfying things a chocolate kitchen can produce. The dark chocolate crowd is not wrong about cheap milk chocolate. They are wrong about milk chocolate.
What is dark milk chocolate?
The best of both arguments. Dark milk is milk chocolate pushed well past the usual cacao percentage, keeping the cream but bringing real cocoa depth. Ours runs at 55%, which is more cacao than many bars sold as dark. You get the roundness and the milky finish, plus an actual chocolate backbone. It is the chocolate I hand to people who say they have outgrown milk chocolate, and it has a perfect conversion record so far.
Where to taste it
Our Toffee Coffee Bar is built on that 55% dark milk, with fresh almond toffee cooked in copper kettles and locally roasted coffee beans. The milk chocolate side of our Mendiant Bar Collection shows what cream does for fruit and nuts, copious candied fruits and fresh roasted nuts on a generous base. And our Gianduja Blocks blend hazelnut praline with our dark milk before the bittersweet coating goes on. Milk chocolate is doing quiet, essential work in all three.
So when does dark win?
Often. I built much of this kitchen on 65% bittersweet and I am not changing sides. The point is that milk versus dark is a false fight. They are different tools. Dark for intensity and finish, milk for roundness and comfort, and the interesting territory is where they overlap. Anyone who tells you one of them is for grown-ups and one is not has been drinking their own tasting notes.
We have something coming later this month for the milk chocolate loyalists, built around a summer classic. Watch this space. In the meantime, have the milk chocolate. You have my permission and, frankly, my encouragement.
Enjoy,
Chuck Siegel
Founder, Charles Chocolates
Chuck Siegel
Founder, Charles Chocolates
Chuck has been making chocolate in San Francisco since 1987. Self-taught, he founded his first chocolate company, Attivo Confections, sold it in 1995, and started Charles Chocolates in 2004 on one uncommon idea: chocolate should be treated like fresh food.
Everything is made in small batches with all-natural ingredients (real cream, real butter, real fruit) and no shortcuts. His work has earned a Good Food Award, Sunset Magazine's Best of the West, and recognition from San Francisco Magazine, and has been covered by KQED and the San Francisco food press.
