Dark Chocolate Truffles

Our Dark Chocolate Truffles use only the best Belgian chocolate. What makes dark chocolate dark?

Cocoa butter is the substance that defines the recognized and sought after chocolate experience. Over half the weight of a dried and cured cacao bean is made up of the fat called cocoa butter. This substance is prized, not only as an essential ingredient in the making of chocolate, it is also used in large quantities by the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries due to its characteristically low melting point and its resistance to rancidity. It is this quality of cocoa butter that lets chocolate melt-in-your-mouth. It also adds to the ability of chocolate to remain for long periods of time at room temperatures without going stale.

In the process of making chocolate from the raw cacao bean, it is the cocoa butter which is first extracted. The solids or cacao mass that is left is then ground down and powdered in a process called conching. It is at this point, when the fat is removed from the solid, that much of the precious cocoa butter is sold off for use in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Only a specified amount is carefully added back into the cocoa mass in controlled proportion according to specific recipes. This ensures each chocolate product is unique and quite distinct from all others not only in taste but also in texture. A higher amount of the costly cocoa butter will produce a smoother chocolate preferred by connoisseurs and chocolateers who will also demand a higher percentages of cacao solids. Inferior “chocolate flavoring” may only include 15% cocoa solids, with the bulk of their product made up of cheaper ingredients such as hydrogenated oils, sugar and milk solids. In the lowest grade of chocolate, there may be little or no cocoa butter at all. Such products cannot legally call themselves chocolate but only chocolate flavoring.

Factors that determine the character of the finished chocolate include, the quality of the conditions in which the beans were grown, the overall health and age of the trees, and their origin. Much like wine, the end result of all things chocolate reflect where they come from and the care they are given along the way.

Chocolates used to make Soma Truffles are all Belgian. We use dark, milk and white for the centers of our truffles, called ganauches. Couvertures, that is the chocolate covering we use to seal the centers, may also include bittersweet, dark and dark milk chocolates as well as white.

Some of our Dark Chocolate Truffle Flavors:

Dark Chocolate Truffle and Raspberry
Dark Chocolate Truffle and Chai
Dark Chocolate Truffle and almond
Dark Chocolate Truffle and jalepano
Dark Chocolate Truffle and mocha
Dark Chocolate Truffle and coffee
Dark Chocolate Truffle and coconut
Dark Chocolate Truffle plain