Cocoa mass and chocolate liquor are the same thing: pure ground cocoa beans, roughly 50 to 55 percent cocoa butter and 45 to 50 percent cocoa solids, with no sugar and no alcohol. Couverture is finished chocolate made from cocoa mass by adding cocoa butter and sugar. Cocoa mass is the raw material. Couverture is the product someone else already made from it.
Cocoa mass, chocolate liquor, couverture. Three terms thrown around interchangeably across UK trade, retail, and culinary writing. Not the same thing.
Cocoa Mass and Chocolate Liquor Are the Same Thing
Identical products with different names. Both refer to whole cocoa beans that are shelled and ground into a smooth, thick paste. Despite the name, chocolate liquor contains no alcohol. The word liquor describes its liquid state during processing.
This paste is 100 percent pure cocoa, roughly 50 to 55 percent cocoa butter (fat) and 45 to 50 percent cocoa solids (flavour), in their natural proportions. The foundation of every real chocolate.
Our Cocoa Mass is sourced direct from our partner facility in Tema, Ghana. Single-origin. COCOBOD-certified. The facility holds ISO 22000 (Food Safety) and ISO 9001 (Quality Management). Full traceability to the growing region.
What Is Couverture?
Couverture is a finished chocolate product. Made by taking cocoa mass and adding extra cocoa butter, sugar, and sometimes lecithin or vanilla, then refining and conching the mixture into a smooth, ready-to-use chocolate.
To be legally classified as couverture under EU and retained UK food information regulations, dark chocolate must contain at least 35 percent total cocoa solids and a minimum of 31 percent cocoa butter. That higher cocoa butter content is what gives couverture its glossy finish, clean snap, and fluid melt when tempered.
It is the chocolate most professional chocolatiers reach for when moulding, enrobing, and dipping, where speed and consistency matter more than recipe uniqueness.
Quick Comparison
| Cocoa Mass / Chocolate Liquor | Couverture | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Raw material. Pure ground cocoa bean. | Finished chocolate, already formulated. |
| Composition | 100 percent cocoa. Roughly 50 to 55 percent cocoa butter, 45 to 50 percent cocoa solids. | Minimum 35 percent cocoa solids and minimum 31 percent cocoa butter, plus sugar. |
| Added sugar | None. | Yes, and often lecithin or vanilla. |
| Ready to use | No. Needs further processing. | Yes. Temper and use. |
| Who controls the recipe | You do. | The manufacturer does. |
| Best for | Bean-to-bar makers, formulators, anyone wanting a single-origin story. | High-volume moulding, enrobing and dipping to a consistent standard. |
The key difference: cocoa mass is what you start with. Couverture is what someone else has already made from cocoa mass.
What About White and Milk Chocolate?
White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids, but no cocoa mass. That is why it is pale. It takes the fat from the cocoa bean and none of the brown solids.
Milk chocolate sits between dark and white: cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids (usually milk powder). UK regulations require at least 25 percent cocoa solids and 14 percent milk solids.
For both, the same logic applies. Buy as finished couverture, or build from individual ingredients (cocoa mass, cocoa butter, milk powder, sugar) for full recipe control.
So Why Does This Matter?
If you are a chocolatier buying couverture, you are buying someone else's recipe. Cocoa percentage, fat ratio, flavour profile, sugar content, all decided for you by the manufacturer.
Buy cocoa mass and cocoa butter as separate ingredients and you control every variable. Fat percentage. Sugar ratio. Lecithin or no lecithin. Which origin tells the story you want to tell on your packaging.
That is the difference between using a pre-made product and crafting your own.
The Bottom Line
Cocoa mass is your raw material. Couverture is a finished product someone else made from that raw material. If you want full creative control over your chocolate, and a single-origin story to match, start with the ingredients rather than the end product.
What Cocoa Mass Costs, and How to Compare Two Quotes
Once you have settled on cocoa mass as the raw material, the next question is what a fair price looks like. Two quotes are rarely measuring the same thing: fat content, origin, format and landed freight all move the number, and a headline price per tonne tells you very little on its own.
We break that down separately in cocoa mass prices: what drives them, and how to compare two quotes.
Common Questions
Sourcing Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter and Cocoa Powder
CocoaFoundry supplies single-origin Ghana cocoa mass and cocoa butter direct from our partner facility in Tema, Ghana. Both run from 100g up to 20kg online, dispatched from our Chelmsford, Essex hub, with a Certificate of Analysis on every batch. There is no minimum order, and trade pricing starts at 25kg per product.
If your recipe needs the cocoa solids without the fat, our natural non-alkalised cocoa powder is the third ingredient in the same range, in the same formats up to 20kg. It is the powder to specify when a recipe is leavened with bicarbonate of soda.
To test the ingredients before committing to volume, the Cocoa Taster Pack includes 100g each of cocoa butter, cocoa mass and natural cocoa powder.
For trade and bulk enquiries, email wholesale@cocoafoundry.co.uk or visit the Wholesale page for trade pricing. Response within 24 hours.