Cacao Percentage

Cacao percentage is the portion of a chocolate bar's weight that comes from the cacao bean, adding together cocoa mass, cocoa butter and any cocoa powder. A 70% dark bar is 70% cacao ingredients; the remaining 30% is mostly sugar, plus small amounts of things like vanilla or an emulsifier.

What the number tells you

• Sweetness — the percentage is a rough guide to sugar. As cacao goes up, sugar usually goes down.
• Intensity — bigger numbers generally mean more bitterness, more roasted flavor and a firmer snap.
• Style — milk chocolate often sits somewhere in the 30–40% range, while many dark chocolates sit between about 55% and 85%.

What the number does not tell you

The percentage lumps cocoa butter and cocoa solids together. One 70% bar might be rich in cocoa butter and taste smooth; another might be heavy on cocoa mass and taste bold and drying. Bean origin, roasting and conching also change the flavor far more than a couple of percentage points. On a white chocolate label, the percentage refers only to cocoa butter, since white chocolate contains no brown cocoa solids.

How to use it when shopping

Use the percentage as a starting point, not a quality score. If you like sweet and creamy, lean lower. If you enjoy bittersweet depth, lean toward darker bars. Then trust your palate: flavor notes, texture and mouthfeel matter just as much.

Polkadot bars and cacao content

Polkadot does not print a specific cacao percentage for its bars, so compare them by style instead. The Polkadot Dark Chocolate is described as selected for its rich cacao content and is the most cacao-forward choice. The dark chocolate collection adds fruit, mint and cookie flavors to that bold base, while the milk chocolate bars offer a sweeter, lower-cacao experience.