Chocolate Linguistics Part 3: Couverture

My fascination with chocolate etymology is now the basis for a trilogy. The first installment of Chocolate Linguistics took on the words "Cocoa" and "Cacao." Chocolate Linguistics Part 2 probed into "Cocoa Mass" and "Cocoa Solids." This time around, I asked four industry experts:

In your own words, how do you define "couverture"?



Clay Gordon
Self-made chocolate expert and author of the upcoming book, Discover Chocolate

Couverture comes from the French for cover, "couvre." Couverture chocolates are used mainly by professionals and contain a high ratio of cocoa butter to cocoa powder so they possess a lower viscosity (they are thinner) when melted and are thus capable of creating thin shells around the center of a bon bon, truffle, or other confection. Because they contain so much cocoa butter, couverture chocolates have a very luscious mouth feel, and for this reason, many chocophiles prefer them to non-couverture chocolates.

Seneca Klassen
Co-owner of Bay Area chocolate cafe Bittersweet and a voice of the Bittersweet blog

Couverture is finished chocolate, usually in button or disc shapes, that chocolatiers and other remelters use to make confections, drink blends, flavored bars, and other remolded chocolate products.

Chuck Siegel
Chocolate entrepreneur behind the Bay Area's Charles Chocolates and (as of July) a chocolate blogger

Couverture is chocolate that is, owing to it's high cocoa butter content (lower viscosity), ideal for using as a coating for confections. As recently as 10 years ago, there was a substantial difference between couverture and the chocolate bars that could be purchased at most stores. The difference between the two is no longer that pronounced, with high cacao content bars, with their higher cocoa butter content, readily available.

Many bars made by better chocolate makers are, in fact, the same as the commercial couverture products that they make available to chocolatiers and pastry chefs.

David Lebovitz
Former Chez Panisse pastry chef, author of The Great Book of Chocolate and (more recently) The Perfect Scoop, and an expat American blogger in Paris

I'm afraid that even I don't know what's couverture anymore! It used to be anything with a higher-than-normal cocoa butter content, but now I can't tell and no one seems to know.