What Percentage Dark Chocolate Should You Buy?
There is no percentage that is best by any measurable standard, because the number on the front of a bar is a compositional declaration and not a quality or content guarantee. Under Schedule 1 of the Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003, anything sold as chocolate must contain at least 35 per cent total dry cocoa solids, at least 18 per cent cocoa butter and at least 14 per cent dry non-fat cocoa solids. Everything above 35 is the maker's choice, not a legal grade.
The category sells the number as a proxy for everything else, and it is not even a reliable proxy for cocoa flavanols. That is not an opinion. It was measured, across 41 commercial chocolates.
What the percentage legally means
The percentage on the front refers to total dry cocoa solids: cocoa mass and cocoa butter combined, as a proportion of the finished chocolate. A 77 per cent bar is 77 per cent cocoa-derived material, and the remaining 23 per cent is the sweetener plus any other declared ingredients. That is the whole of what the figure asserts.
For contrast, milk chocolate under the same Schedule needs only 25 per cent total dry cocoa solids, plus at least 14 per cent dry milk solids and 3.5 per cent milk fat. Couverture, the grade intended for coating and moulding, needs 35 per cent total dry cocoa solids but 31 per cent cocoa butter, which is why it flows the way it does. Higher cocoa butter, thinner melt. The percentage alone does not tell you which of those you are holding.
Why what percentage dark chocolate is best is the wrong question
Alañón and colleagues, publishing in Food Chemistry in 2016, measured the flavanol composition of 41 commercial chocolates by HPLC-DAD. Individual flavanol levels ranged from 0.095 to 3.264 mg/g. Epicatechin was the most abundant flavanol at 32.9 per cent of the total, and the natural form, (-)-epicatechin, accounted for 93 per cent of the epicatechin present, the remainder having epimerised during manufacture.
The finding that matters is the one about the label. They reported no positive correlation between flavanol content and the percentage of cocoa solids, which they describe as the most significant quality parameter on a pack. Theobromine percentage, used as a proxy for non-fat cocoa solids, was also a poor predictor of epicatechin or total flavanol content.
Two limitations before anyone over-reads that. It was a 41-product retail sample analysed at one point in time, not a representative national survey. And it is an analytical study: it measured what was in the chocolate, and nothing about anyone who ate it.
What a higher percentage does change
It changes the legal cadmium ceiling, and in the direction most people would not guess. Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 sets maximum cadmium levels by cocoa content: 0.30 mg/kg for chocolate with less than 50 per cent total dry cocoa solids, and 0.80 mg/kg for chocolate with 50 per cent or more. Cocoa powder sold to the consumer sits at 0.60 mg/kg, and milk chocolate below 30 per cent cocoa solids at 0.10 mg/kg.
More cocoa in the bar means more of whatever the cocoa carried, which is why the permitted level rises with the percentage. A higher number on the front is not a lower-contaminant promise. It is the opposite of one, legally speaking, and the only thing that closes that gap is a maker testing batches and telling you the results. Our note on lead and cadmium in chocolate goes through how the testing works.
| What you are told | What it establishes | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| 35% minimum, to be called chocolate | A legal floor: 35% total dry cocoa solids, 18% cocoa butter, 14% dry non-fat cocoa solids | Anything about origin, roast, bean or process |
| 70%, 77%, 90% on the front | The proportion of cocoa-derived material; the remainder is sweetener and other declared ingredients | Flavanol content, which showed no positive correlation with the declared percentage across 41 commercial chocolates |
| A high percentage | A higher EU cadmium ceiling: 0.80 mg/kg at 50% or more, against 0.30 mg/kg below 50% | That any particular bar is near, or far from, that ceiling |
How to choose a percentage in practice
Pick on taste and on what the maker is willing to disclose. The percentage sets the sweetness ceiling, because the remainder of the bar is mostly sweetener, and it sets the bitterness floor, because cocoa mass is bitter. Beyond that it is a flavour decision between you and the bar.
The disclosure test is the better filter. Ask whether the maker names the origin, says how the cocoa was processed, and publishes contaminant testing. Those answers differ between bars at the same percentage, which is exactly what those analytical figures showed from a different angle. For how cocoa percentage is usually discussed in the category, see our page on choosing a cocoa percentage, and for what processing does to the cocoa, Dutch-processed cacao.
What is actually in a Chaski tube
Chaski Cacao is a 600 g tube of 77 per cent dark chocolate buttons, with a daily dose of four buttons printed on the pack. The cacao is single-origin Peruvian and Ecuadorian, ground at low temperature. The sweetener is coconut sugar, with no added cane sugar, and there are no emulsifiers, no seed oils and no palm oil in it. Every batch is tested for lead, cadmium and pesticides. The button shape changed in mid-2026 and the recipe was unchanged by the reshape.
There is no flavanol figure on this page for Chaski, because none has been measured. The composition and format are on the Chaski Cacao product page, and the rest of the library sits in our guides.
Next time you are in front of a shelf, read the back before the front. The percentage is one line of a declaration that has several.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage does chocolate have to be to be called dark chocolate?
Schedule 1 of the Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003 sets the floor for anything sold as chocolate: at least 35 per cent total dry cocoa solids, at least 18 per cent cocoa butter and at least 14 per cent dry non-fat cocoa solids. Milk chocolate needs only 25 per cent total dry cocoa solids, along with at least 14 per cent dry milk solids and 3.5 per cent milk fat. Anything above the 35 per cent floor is the maker deciding, not a legal grade with its own definition.
Does a higher cocoa percentage mean more flavanols?
Not reliably. Alanon and colleagues, publishing in Food Chemistry in 2016, measured the flavanol composition of 41 commercial chocolates by HPLC-DAD. Individual flavanol levels ranged from 0.095 to 3.264 mg/g, with epicatechin the most abundant at 32.9 per cent of the total. They reported no positive correlation between flavanol content and the percentage of cocoa solids, and found that theobromine percentage, used as a proxy for non-fat cocoa solids, was also a poor predictor of epicatechin or total flavanol content. It was a 41-product retail sample analysed once, and it measured the chocolate rather than anyone eating it.
Why is the cadmium limit higher for higher-percentage chocolate?
Because more of the bar is cocoa. Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 sets maximum cadmium levels by cocoa content: 0.30 mg/kg for chocolate with less than 50 per cent total dry cocoa solids, and 0.80 mg/kg for chocolate with 50 per cent or more. Milk chocolate below 30 per cent cocoa solids sits at 0.10 mg/kg, and cocoa powder sold to the consumer at 0.60 mg/kg. A higher number on the front therefore comes with a higher permitted ceiling, which is why batch testing and published results are worth more than the percentage.
What is the difference between chocolate and couverture?
Cocoa butter. Under Schedule 1 of the Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003, couverture needs at least 35 per cent total dry cocoa solids, the same floor as chocolate, but at least 31 per cent cocoa butter against 18 per cent, and at least 2.5 per cent dry non-fat cocoa solids. The extra cocoa butter makes it flow more thinly when melted, which is why it is the grade used for coating and moulding. The percentage on the front does not tell you which of the two you are holding.
Sources
- The Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003, Schedule 1, legislation.gov.uk, 2003
- European Commission, Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323, Official Journal of the European Union, 2021
- Alañón ME, Castle SM, Siswanto PJ, Cifuentes-Gómez T, Spencer JPE, Food Chemistry, 2016