We regularly describe Goupie as a 'devilishly moreish, chewy chocolate confection with a hint of crunch', but what exactly is a chocolate confectionery?
According to HMRC, a confectionery is: any form of food normally eaten with the fingers and made by a cooking process, other than baking, which contains a substantial amount of sweetening matter. This can describe both a sweet or a chocolate.
Chocolate is described by Collin's Dictionary as: a sweet hard food made from cocoa beans.
If we put these two descriptions together, we can come to a better understanding of what a chocolate confectionery really is! A chocolate confectionery is a sweet treat which in some way incorporates chocolate in its production. At Goupie, we hand-make a uniquely textured cocoa-infused filling and fully enrobe this with our 55% couverture chocolate (more on what couverture is another time!)
And so, what is the difference between a chocolate and a confectionery?
Simply put, a confectionery is the umbrella term for both sweets and chocolate. Although a chocolate will always be a confection, a confection will not always be made of chocolate!
But, what is the difference between sweets and chocolate?
This is interesting, as sweets have a very broad definition! Merriam-Webster defines sweets as: a food (such as a candy or preserve) having a high sugar content and so this could very well also refer to chocolate. We must again return to our definition of chocolate. Chocolate by definition must include cocoa beans! This makes for an interesting debate when it comes to white chocolate (which technically only contains cocoa butter, rather than the beans themselves), but that is for another time!
We hope that we've cleared up some definitions and given you some satisfying answers! If you have any more you'd like us to add to this piece, please do get in touch at hello@goupie.co.uk!