Milk Chocolate 35%

Bars of 80–200 g, plain or with nuts, raisins, caramel or biscuit. Some brands on the Czech market state 35 % or more on milk lines, often Swiss or Belgian imports, own-label premium ranges and craft makers.

Sold in 100 g to 1 kg bags or blocks as pecky, callets or 'čokoláda na vaření'. They are made for melting and tempering, with tempering curves printed on the pack. Professional examples at around 35 % include products from French, Belgian and Swiss chocolate houses, which Czech confectioners and baking shops sell.

Small Czech and foreign craft makers produce milk chocolates with 40–50 % or more cocoa, which taste noticeably more of cocoa. They are milk chocolates by law but sit between this item and dark chocolate in taste.

Dark chocolate (hořká čokoláda, at least 35 % cocoa solids, with no milk solids requirement). White chocolate (bílá čokoláda, cocoa butter with no cocoa mass). Milk chocolate with a higher milk content. Cocoa coatings and 'cocoa treats' (kakaová poleva, kakaová pochoutka), which do not meet the definition of chocolate and usually use other vegetable fats.

Milk chocolate came out of Swiss work in the late 19th century, which combined chocolate with condensed or powdered milk. In the Czech lands, industrial chocolate making grew in the same period: the Prague company that became Orion (now part of Nestlé) dates from the 1890s. Today's '35 %' labelling is a recent marketing distinction. The EU chocolate directive of 2000, applied from 2003, requires the cocoa content to be declared, and higher-cocoa milk chocolates have become more common as interest in cocoa-forward flavour has grown.

Chocolate is a suspension of fine sugar, cocoa and milk particles in a continuous fat phase of cocoa butter plus milk fat. Cocoa butter can crystallise in six forms. Tempering encourages form V, which gives gloss, snap and melting just below body temperature. Milk fat interferes with cocoa butter crystals, so milk chocolate is softer, melts at a lower temperature and is tempered a few degrees cooler than dark chocolate. Caramel and cooked-milk notes come from Maillard reactions in the milk powder (or milk crumb) during processing. Fat bloom is cocoa butter migrating to the surface and recrystallising after warming. Sugar bloom is sugar dissolved by condensation and then recrystallised.

Most cocoa is grown by smallholders in West Africa, especially Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, where child labour, low farmgate prices and deforestation are documented problems. Certifications seen on Czech shelves include Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, and some brands run their own sourcing programmes. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EU 2023/1115) covers cocoa and will require deforestation-free supply chains for products placed on the EU market, from 30 December 2026 for large and medium companies and from 30 June 2027 for small ones. Milk comes from dairy supply chains, often unspecified on the label. Bean-to-bar makers frequently publish their farm or cooperative of origin.