70% Cacao & Up

Your Stone Ground Guide

Follow these symbols to pick your dream Stone-Ground Chocolate experience, textured or smooth.

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Taza Smooth vs Textured Chocolate Guide

Have questions about textured vs smooth chocolate? View our guide.

  • 70% is the dark chocolate sweet spot. Dark enough to taste like cacao, balanced enough to satisfy a sweet craving.

    Ours is stone ground, which is where it parts ways with the smooth 70% bars you already know. We grind organic cacao using hand-carved granite millstones, the same Mexican-style method our founder Alex Whitmore first tasted in Oaxaca in 2005, and we do less to it: a light roast, minimal refining, no conching for days to sand the texture flat. What’s left is a 70% that’s bright, fruity, and gloriously gritty, with the cacao still doing the talking. This collection rounds up Taza chocolate at 70% cacao and up.

  • What 70% cacao actually means

    A 70% bar is 70% cacao by weight, cacao plus cocoa butter, with the rest mostly sugar. Higher percentage means more cacao and less sugar, so 70% is darker and less sweet than a 50%, and brighter and more approachable than an 80% or 100%. It’s the percentage most people mean when they say “dark chocolate.” What the number doesn’t tell you is how the chocolate was made, and that’s where stone grinding changes the taste at the same percentage.

  • Why our 70% tastes different

    Most 70% bars are conched for hours or days until the texture is uniform and smooth. Ours aren’t. Stone grinding leaves fine cacao and sugar particles intact, so the bar has a deliberate grit and the bean’s natural brightness survives. If you’ve only had smooth supermarket 70%, this is the same percentage with the flavor turned back up.

  • Start at 70%.

    Our Deliciously Dark 70% is the everyday bar, bright and fruity with the signature stone ground grit. Sea Salt 70% Disc and Cacao Puro 70% Disc sit right alongside it, and the 70% Smooth & Crunchy bars add cookie, puffed quinoa, and citrus.

  • Go darker.

    Step up to 80% Cacao Crunch for texture, then try 85% Super Dark Disc, 87% Seriously Dark Bar, or 95% Wicked Dark Bar and 100% Totally Dark chunks to experience cacao at full volume.

  • Eat it as a snack.

    Our Wicked Dark  chocolate covered almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are all built on extra dark Taza chocolate, and the Wicked Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds are like an 87% bar in snack form.

  • How to use 70% dark chocolate

    Eat it: a square or two as your everyday dark chocolate, bold but not punishing. Bake with it: 70% is the workhorse percentage for cookies, brownies, and ganache. Drink it: chop it into hot milk with a pinch of salt. Pair it: 70% holds up next to coffee, stout, red wine, and a sharp aged cheese.

Frequently asked questions about 70% dark chocolate

What does 70% cacao mean?

It means the bar is 70% cacao by weight, cacao plus cocoa butter, with the rest mostly sugar. Higher percentage means more cacao and less sugar.

Is 70% dark chocolate healthy?

70% has less sugar than milk chocolate and contains cacao flavanols, but it’s still chocolate. We make ours for flavor, with organic cacao and organic cane sugar and no fillers or unneeded extras.

Is Taza 70% dark chocolate vegan and dairy-free?

Yes. It contains organic cacao and organic cane sugar, with no dairy and no animal-derived ingredients. Vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

How is 70% different from 80% cacao?

80% has more cacao and less sugar, so it’s darker, less sweet, and more intense. 70% is the more approachable everyday percentage; 80% is a step toward the pure-cacao end.

Can you bake with 70% dark chocolate?

Yes. 70% is the standard baking percentage for brownies, cookies, and ganache. Our stone ground 70% adds a grittier texture and brighter flavor than smooth couverture, which many bakers want.

Why is Taza’s 70% gritty?

Stone grinding purposefully leaves fine cacao and sugar particles intact instead of conching them smooth, which carries the cacao’s natural brightness.

MADE BETTER

We only make chocolate from 100% organic, Direct Trade Certified cacao. Taza means better ingredients, better prices to farmers, and better chocolate for you.