Dark Chocolate: The bare essentials.
Dark chocolate is simply chocolate liquor (the centers of cocoa beans ground to a liquid), extra cocoa butter, sugar, an emulsifier (often lecithin) and vanilla or other flavorings. Dark chocolates may contain milk fat to soften the texture, but they do not generally have a milky flavor.
Dark chocolate also is known as semi-sweet chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate, or baking chocolate, is 100 percent chocolate liquor and is typically very bitter and astringent.
Darker chocolates often have a higher percent cacao, which means they have a higher proportion of cocoa beans in them than other chocolates do. See more about percent cacao and how it affects a chocolate taste.