[1] This additional cocoa butter, combined with proper tempering, gives the chocolate more sheen, a firmer "snap" when broken, and a creamy mellow flavor.

Dark couverture chocolate almost always exceeds the minimum legally required cocoa content, and despite the law permitting 5% vegetable fat, its inclusion is very rare.

Products that contain compound chocolate have a lower percentage of solids and contain non-cocoa fats.

Subsequent tempering may or may not be required, depending on the usage and the desired characteristics of the final product.

A mid-19th century French textbook recommends a superior quality chocolate, referred to as "sauce" or "couverture", for the making of Pralines de chocolat à la crème, a chocolate-covered fondant candy.