Today, January 10th, is National Bittersweet Chocolate Day.

Bittersweet chocolate is a type of dark chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate is pure chocolate liquor with some fat added. Dark chocolate has sugar added.

Bittersweet has sugar, to less than a third of the total, added to the chocolate liquor as well as cocoa butter (the fat) and vanilla. It is darker, and stronger, than the other main type of dark chocolate, semisweet, which can up to half sugar.

The percentage of chocolate in bittersweet chocolate can vary quite a bit. Seventy to eighty-five percent chocolate is more common, probably with that at the lower end of 70% being more generally popular, as 85% is too bitter and strong for many people's tastes.

Image: Image: eGDC Ltd