If you ask a few people what Dutch chocolate means you’ll get a couple of different answers, and they’re all a bit right. Sometimes it’s simply chocolate that was made in the Netherlands (fair enough). Other times somebody’s talking about cocoa that went through Dutching, where an alkali takes the sharp edge off the natural acidity. We suspect that’s why so much drinking cocoa and baking chocolate is made that way. It comes out darker and milder, and it dissolves much more easily.
What Dutch-processed cocoa is
Honestly the history is a bit fuzzy to us. The usual version has a Dutch chemist working out alkalization back in the early 1,800s, basically treating the cocoa with a potassium or sodium carbonate solution. Less acidity came out of it. Less bitterness too, plus a deeper color. It also stirs into a liquid without clumping up as much, which probably explains how it became the habit for hot chocolate and plenty of European recipes.
Dutch-processed vs natural cocoa
Natural cocoa tastes acidic and a little fruity. Dutch-processed is darker and mellower, and nowhere near as sharp. If you made a cup of hot cocoa both ways you’d probably notice right away, and we think that’s a big reason European-style chocolate feels smoother to a lot of people than natural-cocoa products do.
Stocking Dutch chocolate and cocoa
On the resale side, Dutch-style drinking cocoa sits happily beside chocolate bars. Chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag) fit in there too. They all share that mellow smooth taste people link with European chocolate. When we’re pulling a section together we usually go through the Dutch lines first and then the wider chocolate category. Licorice is the other very Dutch thing, so there’s our guide to Dutch licorice (drop) as well, which gets into the salty and sweet kinds that sit well next to all this.
FAQ
What is Dutch chocolate?
A bit of both, and it depends who’s talking. Some people just mean chocolate from the Netherlands itself. More often it’s chocolate and cocoa made with Dutch-processed (alkalized) cocoa. That one comes out darker and smoother, and less acidic than natural cocoa.
What does Dutch-processed cocoa mean?
It’s cocoa that’s been treated with an alkali so the natural acidity settles down. You end up with a milder taste and a deeper color. It tends to mix into drinks and baking more easily too, which people notice pretty quickly.
