The Differences Between a Chocolate Maker and a Chocolatier

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved chocolate. Not picky about the flavors or formats, just deeply devoted to it in a way that my parents found endearing and my dentist found concerning. I just knew that I wanted ‘the chocolate.’ So imagine my delight when I learned that chocolate making is something to which people dedicate entire careers. It wasn’t until I got deeper into my passion that I realized a chocolate maker and a chocolatier are two very different callings. 

You see, one is like a wheat farmer, who assesses the quality of the wheat and mills it into flour. The other is like a baker, who takes that flour and turns it into sourdough or croissants. The wheat farmer needs a solid understanding of the grain and quality, their expertise lives in creating a raw ingredient (the flour). In contrast, the baker needs a solid understanding of how to combine, shape, and develop the flour, along with other ingredients, into something new. Their expertise really lives in the transformation. 

Like the wheat farmer, a chocolate maker typically begins with a raw ingredient: the cacao bean. They source cacao beans (which will likely have already been fermented or dried if the cacao farmer is not also the chocolate maker) and then roast, crack, winnow, grind, and refine them into chocolate. From there, the beans are transformed into finished dark, milk, or white chocolate bars. This is the bean-to-bar chocolate making process, a “craft” rooted in agricultural sourcing and food science. Every decision a chocolate maker makes – from bean origin to roast temperature – influences the flavor of the chocolate. When you notice tasting notes like “dried cherry” on a craft chocolate bar, that is the chocolate maker’s work! More on “terroir” in a future post.

Using the same analogy, the baker – or chocolatier – usually picks up where the chocolate maker wraps (see what we did there?). Rather than making chocolate from scratch, a chocolatier works with finished chocolate products, often referred to as professional-grade ‘couverture’ chocolate (taken from the French verb couvrir, meaning “to cover,” couverture usually has a higher percentage of cocoa butter, which makes it more conducive to confections). Chocolatiers take chocolate and transform it into truffles, ganaches, pastries, chocolate bars, and other confections. Their expertise lies in technique, flavor pairing, and artistry, creating chocolates that are as beautiful as they are delicious. 

So why does this matter? Craft chocolate tastes fundamentally different from mass-market chocolate, which is chocolate produced at scale and using commodity cacao. This is the chocolate most of us grew up eating, and it’s designed to taste consistent rather than highlight the unique flavors of a particular origin. In craft chocolate, origin is a key part of the story, and knowing who grew the beans that made your chocolate is the first step towards tasting it with appreciation. But don’t be fooled: just because a brand has “chocolatier” in its name doesn’t mean they are one in the traditional sense. In the chocolate world, the term is often used loosely, often to signal simply: “we work in chocolate.”

Every brand we carry at The Chocolate Dispensary has been carefully vetted for quality and transparency, and we know (and love!) the makers behind our bars.