Cocoa mass is 100% chocolate with nothing else in it. No sugar, no milk, no added cocoa butter. Ours is Callebaut's, made by roasting whole beans and grinding the nibs until the fat releases and the paste runs, then setting it into small Easymelt discs that melt quickly and weigh out cleanly.

Because it is cocoa solids and cocoa butter in their natural ratio, with a minimum of 53% fat, it does two jobs at once. It raises cocoa intensity without adding a gram of sweetness, and it deepens colour in anything that has come out paler than you wanted. That gives you a level of control over the sugar in a recipe that you cannot get by swapping one couverture for another.

What Is Cocoa Mass? 

Cocoa mass is the paste you get when roasted, de-shelled cocoa nibs are ground fine enough for the cocoa butter to flow. You will also see it sold as cocoa liquor or chocolate liquor. All three names describe the same thing, and none of them involve alcohol. It is the base every dark chocolate starts from: add sugar and you have chocolate, press the fat out and you have cocoa butter and cocoa powder.

How to Use Cocoa Mass 

Melt it gently until fully liquid and add it to your mix, or seed the discs straight into an already melted mixture. It behaves like a very dark, very bitter chocolate, so add in small measurements and work upwards, tasting as you go. The bitterness arrives faster than most people expect and there is no sugar in it to soften the landing.

Seeding suits the Easymelt format because the discs are small and consistent. Drop them into the warm mixture, stir until they have disappeared, then check your temperature before deciding whether to add any more.

Add it to ganache, praline, mousse or ice cream to push the cocoa note up without thinning the set, or into a cake batter for a deeper colour and a rounder chocolate flavour. Because it carries its own cocoa butter it can also be tempered like a dark chocolate, which is what makes 100% bars and bespoke high cocoa recipes possible.

Making Your Own 100% Chocolate

A 100% bar is simply about tempering, because the chocolate is already made. Melt the discs to 45 to 50°C, cool to around 27°C to build the crystals, then work at 30 to 32°C, the same curve as a dark couverture. Callebaut publish no crystallisation curve for this article, so treat those figures as a starting point and test a small batch first.

Expect it to run thicker than a couverture. With no added cocoa butter to help it flow, moulded bars and thin shells may need a little cocoa butter added, which keeps the bar 100% cocoa because cocoa butter is a cocoa product too. For slabs, tablets and anything you cut rather than mould, the mass on its own is fine.

Then plan for the sugar, because at 0.3g per 100g there is almost none, and nothing to round off the bitterness or the acidity of the bean. Taste the bar at room temperature, when the flavour has settled.

Using It for Colour

Cocoa mass is a useful way to darken a mix, but the bitterness comes along with the colour. If you are adding it for depth of colour rather than flavour, add an equal part of your chosen sweetener to keep the balance, and go in small steps rather than all at once.

Storage and Shelf Life 

Reseal the pack after use and store at 12 to 20°C somewhere dry and free of strong smells. Kept that way it holds for 24 months from production. Cocoa mass sets hard, so bring it up to temperature gently rather than forcing it, and avoid any moisture reaching the melted mass.