Cacao – Not to be confused with cocoa, which is that frothy drink that keeps children warm on wintry nights, cacao refers to the edible fruit that is harvested from the cocoa plant. Chocolate with a lower cacao content is generally sweeter to the taste, while high cacao-content chocolates can be intensely bitter. Finding the right balance for your palette is essential to having a satisfying chocolate experience, which is why Mitchell’s offers a sample pack of three content levels in the form of three-ounce chocolate bars.

Couverture, like so much of the chocolatier vocabulary, comes from the French. It is used to distinguish finer chocolates, that is, chocolates distinguished by the quality and size of the cacao bean and possessing a relatively high level of cocoa butter.

Ganache, another French term, is generally used to describe a rather smooth mixture of chocolate and one or more dairy products, such as cream, butter, and/or milk.

Gianduja, also from the French, refers to a mixture of nuts (typically hazelnuts), chocolate, and sugar.

Marzipan combines sugar, a binding agent, and almonds to create a sweet paste.

Nougat is a European confection that combines various nuts and sometimes fruits with honey.