My boyfriend Darin and I were making his famous 'Bourbon Chocolate Chipper Cookies' this year, and each year we try a variation of chips from milk chocolate, to peanut butter chips, to white chocolate and even semi-sweet. This year, when he asked me to pick up another back of semi-sweet chips, I thought I would grab a different brand to see how they tasted. Instead of getting Nestly Tollhouse semi-sweet chips, I picked up a bag of Hershey's Dark chocolate. THAT was a mistake.
I guess I thought that dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate were exactly the same, but I would be wrong about that. It's not just about the brands being different. Semi-sweet is a form of dark chocolate, but it is definitely NOT dark chocolate.
Darin said that dark chocolate was not the same. After baking for all these years, I thought I knew that they were the same; so I lost that kitchen battle.
After looking into it, semi-sweet chips are a form of dark chocolate but are still a bit sweeter than dark chocolate.
I went straight to the people who know exactly what the difference between dark and semi-sweet chocolate is; The National Confectioners Association. According to the NCA, Dark chocolate is "The bare essentials. Dark chocolate is simply chocolate liquor, (the centers of cocoa beans ground to a liquid), extra cocoa butter, sugar, an emulsifier, and vanilla or other flavorings. Dark chocolate also is known as semi-sweet chocolate."
The NCA says that semi-sweet chocolate is: "Like bittersweet chocolate, semisweet chocolate is required by U.S. regulations to contain at least 35 percent chocolate liquor. Generally, semisweet chocolate contains 35 to 45 percent chocolate liquor. Semisweet chocolate is often referred to as dark chocolate."
So...in a way...I was kinda right. Mom always just called it dark chocolate, so that's what I thought it was.
Regardless, the one thing we did agree on, is that Darin just can't mess up his cookies no matter what kind of chips he puts in. We've tried all kinds, but our favorite is still the 'semi-sweet' chocolate chip.