How this calculator works
Chocolate is a dense mixture of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar and, in milk and white chocolate, milk solids. Because the proportions differ, the same weight of dark and milk chocolate has different calories, sugar and fat. The figures here come from USDA FoodData Central per 100 g and are scaled to the amount you enter. Dark chocolate has more fat and fibre and much less sugar than milk chocolate; white chocolate contains no cocoa solids at all, only cocoa butter, sugar and milk. Percentages of daily values are not shown because they depend on the standard being used.
Formula
total grams = number of bars x bar weight, or the weight you enter. nutrient amount = nutrient per 100 g x total grams / 100. energy in kilocalories uses the USDA per-100 g value; the calculator converts to joules with 1 kcal = 4.184 kJ. Sodium is listed in milligrams.
Worked example
Two 100 g bars of 70 to 85 per cent dark chocolate weigh 200 g. At 598 kcal per 100 g that is 1,196 kcal, with 85.2 g of fat, 48 g of sugars and 21.8 g of fibre. The same 200 g of milk chocolate at 535 kcal per 100 g gives 1,070 kcal, 103 g of sugars and only 6.8 g of fibre.
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Frequently asked questions
Is dark chocolate always lower in sugar?
Usually, but not automatically. Chocolate labelled 70 per cent cacao has about 30 per cent other ingredients, most of them sugar. A dark chocolate with a lower cacao percentage can contain more sugar than a high-cacao bar. Read the nutrition panel on the bar you actually have.
Why do the numbers differ from the label on my bar?
Brands vary in cocoa content, added milk fat, emulsifiers and sugar. The USDA values are averages for the category. If precision matters, use the per-100 g figures printed on the package and scale them by the weight shown here.
Does white chocolate contain caffeine?
White chocolate contains cocoa butter but no cocoa solids, so it has little or no caffeine and far fewer of the flavanols found in dark chocolate. It is still high in fat and sugar, which is why its energy value is close to milk chocolate.
How many chocolate chips are in a cup?
A US cup of chocolate chips weighs about 170 g, which is the chip option in the bar size list. The exact count depends on chip size and how they settle, so weight is the reliable measure.