Food and Drink : Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

I consume a fair amount of the stuff but I am unsure how to classify it. In my daily diet log I have been placing a question mark in the "foodstuff category" column. If you look up the definition of candy it says, "a confection made with sugar and often flavoring and filling." That would rule out unsweetened chocolate. I think that definition might be a little out of date. I think it is from the 1800s or thereabouts.

If you produced a sugar free Snickers bar would that not be candy? It would taste different but I bet you would still find it in the candy aisle.

If the only thing that separates candy from non-candy is sugar then nearly everything Americans eat is candy when compared to the real stuff. Sugar is added to all of our food, from bread to tomato paste to peanut butter to deli meat. Confection is mentioned in the definition of candy. What is a confection? "A sweet preparation, such as candy." Sweetness is a spectrum. American tomato paste compared to real tomato paste must taste sweeter. Labelling something sweet perhaps suggests that it is more sweet than unsweet. I don't know if that means anything. You might start quibbling over the ratio of sugar to its net weight. If sweetness is what ultimately counts then artificially sweetened candy is more candy than sugar candy.

You would certainly find an artificially sweetened Snickers bar next to the artificially sweetened gum. But tying the definition of candy to the perception of sweetness makes it relative. If you removed the sweet tasting buds from a person's tongue would candy cease to exist for them? In that case I don't think candy really exists. It is a social construction and I am free to say unsweetened chocolate is candy.

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

Yea, I have a large jar of vegetable and protein powder worth $100 I got on sale for maybe $60+ with food stamps, and I use it in the group home I live in to boost my health, and it's chocolate, probably not much sugar, but it's better than real chocolate in some ways.

They used to sell bars at the health grocery store Whole Foods, and there was gooey chocolate inside. It was discontinued a long time ago. It must have been organic, but I loved it so much in college.

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Christina Barrett
½ American ½ European-Asian

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

No, it can be used as an ingredient in savory dishes as well, like mole.



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Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

How does that prove it is not candy? Show your work.

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

By itself chocolate is not candy. It must be sweetened to be made into candy. It's used in meat sauces like mole. It's ground with coffee to make mocha.

Coconut is another similar ingredient. Most the world uses coconut to make stock for meat sauces, like curry. It's used in candy in the West but it must be sweetened.

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Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

By itself chocolate is not candy.
Why not? You are taking your conclusion and packaging it as a premise. I want to know why chocolate by itself should not be candy.

It must be sweetened to be made into candy.
This is just a naked assertion. Why must it be sweetened to be candy? What counts as sweetened? If it depends on a person's perception of sweetness and so is relative then we cannot rule out mutants in this world or even people in possible worlds who experience the sensation of sweetness when they eat unsweetened chocolate. If you are arguing that it is the intention of the confectioner that determines whether or not something is candy then there is no ground and the word 'candy' has no meaning.

It's used in meat sauces like mole.
I'm not sure that this counts as evidence. Can regular chocolate not be used? What purity of chocolate is acceptable for a meat sauce?

It's ground with coffee to make mocha.
I don't follow you here. Surely many people take their coffee with sugar. Does that matter? I can't even tell.

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

Candy is a type of prepared food. Chocolate is a raw ingredient.
can·dy

a sweet food made with sugar or other sweeteners, typically formed in small, shaped pieces and flavored with chocolate, fruit, or nuts.
Candy must by definition be sweet. You asked about raw unsweetened chocolate. It's not candy.

Got it now?

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Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

It's very bitter. If kids won't eat it I wouldn't consider it candy.

🍬 ¿Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

¡No! Unsweetened it tastes like chalk. I do consider 90% cacao candy, however. The Walmart store brand is the cheapest I've found.

For a while, you couldn't find the 90%, so I bought the 85% and mixed my bites with the unsweetened. it worked fairly well.



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Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

Chocolate is the same exact kind of thing as coffee.

Coffee is roasted seeds and chocolate is roasted seeds.

I am not sure what you mean in your post.

Unsweetened chocolate is more bitter and nasty than coffee. If you put dark roasted coffee beans in your mouth, they are not good. If you put pure chocolate in your mouth, it's worse.

Chocolate is roasted beans, not candy.

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

If it isn't sweetened, it isn't candy. Therefore, unsweetened chocolate is not candy. However, it is used a lot in baking and cooking.

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

No, but I consider unsweetened candy to be chocolate. does that make me a sinner?

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

What if I put caramel sauce and whipped cream on a cheeseburger? Is that candy?

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Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

I'm not sure, but it sounds wonderful!

Re: Do you consider unsweetened chocolate to be candy?

Chocolate covered tuna.

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