Making Chocolate

• On a basic level, sugar-free chocolate is simply chocolate that is made with a non-sugar sweetener instead of sugar. Anyone who has any experience with a brick of unsweetened baking chocolate knows that chocolate doesn't need sugar in order to keep its shape and consistency. A solid bar of sweetened chocolate is made by combining sweeteners, and perhaps milk powder, with cocoa liquor and cocoa butter derived from a process of roasting and cooking cacao beans.
  
  After this, what makes the difference between regular chocolate candy and the sugar-free varieties is the choice of sweetener, of which there are a number of varieties which are considered "sugar free."
  
  

Calorie-Free Sweeteners

• Many sugar-free chocolates are made using artificial, calorie-free sweeteners, such as saccharin or aspartame. These sweeteners are made from chemical combination that yield a sweet taste, or sucralose which is sugar that is chemically altered so that the body does not metabolise it. Most calorie-free sweeteners are unfortunately accompanied by an unpleasant aftertaste.
  
  

Sugar Alcohol

• Sugar alcohol, such as malitol and sorbitol, are responsible for relatively new sugar-free chocolate recipes and are not calorie-free. Instead, sugar alcohols, also made from chemically-altered sugars, have a lower calorie content and produce a lesser blood sugar reaction when consumed.
  
  Sugar alcohols are a popular ingredient in sugar-free chocolate because candy made with sugar alcohol is generally considered to have a taste that is closer to candy made with real sugar. Since sugar alcohols are not as sweet as real sugar, they are usually used in combination with an artificial sweetener, however, the taste of the sugar alcohol masks the aftertaste.