The Chocolate Powder Company

Some Publications

Berry, D. "Chocolate Milk Wars".
Dairy Foods 2001; 102 (9): 49-56.

(Extract)

Chocolate milk powder

Recently a new ingredient has become available for formulating chocolate milk. It's reduced-fat chocolate powder. Chocolate powders are made from full-fat conched milk and plain chocolate from which some or virtually all of the fat is removed. The conching process removes the acid from chocolate liquor and improves chocolate flavor development. Chocolate powder reaps the benefits of the conching process. Cocoa powder, on the other hand, is not conched. Chocolate powder is described as having authentic chocolate taste and aroma, which makes chocolate milk more chocolaty.

"Until now, it has not been possible to make a powder ingredient out of chocolate because it has a lot of fat and an undesirable amount of that fat would separate
out and float to the top of a solution," says Albert Zumbe, the inventor of chocolate powder. "Full-fat chocolate powder would also clump at warm temperatures making it quite cumbersome to work with."

Chocolate powder is much more soluble than cocoa powder, which reduces the problem of particles settling out of suspension. It's also very stable.

"Chocolate powder is the fingerprint of the mother chocolate," says Zumbe.

There are basically four types of chocolate powders available: Plain, Extra Strong, [White] and Milk. However, chocolate powders, like cocoa powders, can be made from a variety of chocolate sources and blended for customization.

Zumbe suggests a 5-7% usage level for superpremium chocolate milk. To be more economical, good chocolate milk can be made with 2-3% chocolate powder along with chocolate flavorings.