Cocktails with Dark chocolate
Dark chocolate is a solid chocolate of cocoa solids and cocoa butter, with no milk and less sugar than milk chocolate.
How it's used
Grated over foam it adds aroma; melted into a hot drink it thickens and deepens it. Melt it into liquid that is already warm. Even a small splash of cold water makes melted chocolate seize into a grainy paste. Aged rum, whiskey and coffee all suit it; the higher the cocoa percentage, the more bitter it tastes.
Substitutes for Dark chocolate
Another dark chocolate
Anything from 60% to 85% cacao works beautifully by weight. Lower percentages just make things sweeter.
Milk chocolate
It packs twice the sugar. Expect a noticeably sweeter and milder glass.
Cocoa powder mix
For 20 g of chocolate, blend 1½ tablespoons of cocoa with 1½ teaspoons each of sugar and neutral oil.
Plain cocoa powder
A last resort. It sits bitter and dry on its own. Mix it with a little warm liquid first so it blends smoothly.
Storage
Cool, dry, sealed, and away from anything aromatic, because cocoa butter takes on smells. Stored warm it blooms into a gray film — harmless, still fine melted, and no longer something to shave over a drink.
