Author of Ed Engoron’s Choclatique, Running Press, 2011
I am always surprised at how many five and ten pound blocks of white chocolate we sell at Choclatique. Of course, I think our Snowy White Chocolate is the best white chocolate in the marketplace and I have to suppose that many of our customers feel that way too based upon our sales history.
Over the last several years independent studies have proven dark chocolate has heart, skin and even brain health benefits which are linked to the flavanol content. Dark chocolate can even reduce the growth of caries which cause tooth decay. White chocolate, which does not contain the beneficial flavanols found in dark chocolate still provides cardiovascular benefits, which researchers at Molecular Nutrition & Food Research have reported. The study found benefits in dark, milk and white chocolate, and found improved platelet function among men who consumed both the white and the dark chocolate. However, women seem to have better results with dark chocolate only.
For the last several years the research on the benefits relating to chocolate has grown. Montezuma must have known that not only was chocolate a great aphrodisiac, but the Holy Grail when it comes to health. Always do as the ChocolateDoctor recommends: Take two truffles and call me in the morning.
I used to go to El Torito just for their corn cakes. They were wonderfully sweet and were an excellent foil for the spicier Mexican food. I am always looking for ways to introduce chocolate to different foods, but especially Mexican cuisine as that’s where the whole chocolate culture originated. I was thrilled when I came up with a way to add chocolate to corn.
Keep them all guessing and don’t tell anyone that your secret ingredient in these corn cakes is white chocolate—really, 
If you love to bake anything chocolate you may have found that choosing chocolate for baking has gotten a little complicated. It used to be pretty straightforward — dark, milk, white, sweet, un-sweetened, semisweet or bittersweet. But these days, sorting out which chocolate belongs in your brownies or chocolate chip cookies can seem more like selecting a fine wine than whipping up a batch of your kid’s favorite cupcakes. Your choices can be very confusing with all the different percentages listed on the package. 
You can find 33%, 47%, 64% or even 91% percent cacao is available on the market and some chocolate with no percentage of cacao listed at all. Then the question must be asked is one any better than the other? And, what’s all this percent stuff about cacao, anyway?
American chocolate companies have taken a page out of the wine and coffee industries’ marketing books and have begun labeling their bars with the source of origin, single origin (estate grown) and according to the percentage of cacao content which is the combined blend of cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
The biggest problem is there’s way too much emphasis on the percentage of cacao and not enough attention paid to the ratio of the ingredients. Most people think the higher the percentage of cacao, the better the chocolate. There are other factors that go into chocolate quality. It’s really misleading to just claim that one bar compared to another is better just because it has 80 percent cacao versus 70 percent cacao for another.
Good chocolate makers use simple ingredients, a blend of cacao—fats and solids—sugar and dairy in the case of milk chocolate. The ratio of the blend affects taste, texture and how it reacts in making chocolate both for eating or baking. A higher percentage of cacao doesn’t guarantee a more intense chocolate flavor, because cacao percentages represent the total of all cocoa solids (from which chocolate gets its flavor) and cocoa butter (which imparts chocolate’s lush mouth feel). While different chocolates may have the same percent of total cacao, they could contain vastly different ratios of solids and fats, and that dramatically influences both the taste, texture of and the “bakablity” of the chocolate.
Higher cacao percentages also don’t necessarily result in higher quality either. Taste is influenced more by the origin, drying, fermenting, roasting and the blend of beans. Better beans can produce better chocolate, even with lower percentages and cacao ratios.
So What Should You Buy?
For baking, I like to use and 70 to 80 percent dark chocolate depending on the ration of fat to solids. Our 
