What Is Chocolate Liquor?

What is chocolate liquor? Well, it’s essentially pure, liquid cocoa. But there’s more to it than that. Keep scrolling and reading to find out everything you could ever want to know about cocoa liquor. 

It’s safe to say that chocolate is a pretty popular food—about 7.5 million tons are consumed a year. But let’s say your love for the stuff goes beyond frequent visits to the M&M Store and Hershey, PA. In such an event, you might want to explore your obsession even further and learn how to make chocolate for yourself. If you do, you’ll quickly encounter the phrase “chocolate liquor.” It’s one of the main components of a chocolate bar, but what exactly is it? Is it alcoholic? What’s it made of? Let’s break into some answers and learn about chocolate liquor.

What is chocolate liquor?

Willy Wonka once said that candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker (actually, he was quoting the humorist and poet Ogden Nash). But where does chocolate liquor fall in all of this? Is it candy or is it liquor?

It turns out that it’s simply the pure, liquid form of cocoa (not that dissimilar from the river in which Augustus Gloop found himself, to continue the Willy Wonka connection). After the seeds of the cocoa tree are fermented to release their flavor, they’re dried, cleaned, and roasted. Then, they are ground down and heated, turning them into chocolate liquor. In this instance, the word “liquor” means “liquid.”

Is chocolate liquor alcohol?

This is an understandable question, since when we hear the word “liquor” we usually assume it means “distilled hard alcohol like whiskey and vodka.” 

However, in this instance, it just means “liquid.” There is no alcoholic content in chocolate liquor, so feel free to imbibe to your heart’s content without fear of catching a buzz—though, to be honest, I wouldn’t actually recommend slurping down a bunch of the stuff because you’re likely to get a stomach ache at least and maybe a caffeine headache as well. 

Chocolate liquor should not be confused with chocolate liqueur, which is chocolate in spirit form. Chocolate liqueur is a key ingredient in Chocolate Martinis, Brandy Alexanders, boozy milkshakes and other gross alcoholic beverages and it absolutely contains alcohol. By the way, if you’re interested in sampling chocolate liqueurs, the so-called Alcohol Professor has a list of brands for your perusal. 

What is chocolate liquor made of?

Chocolate liquor is made from the nibs of cocoa beans that have been ground into paste and then melted down. It is essentially pure cocoa, and it contains both cocoa butter and cocoa solids in roughly equal measure. Milk and sugar, as well as additional cocoa butter, are added later to make dark chocolate. Additional condensed milk is thrown in to make milk chocolate. 

What is organic chocolate liquor?

“Organic” is one of those words that sounds good and healthy but doesn’t always mean that much. So it seems to be with organic chocolate liquor; there doesn’t appear to be much distinction here except that some brands call their product “organic chocolate liquor” instead of simply “chocolate liquor.”