Beginnings

• Both German chocolate and bittersweet chocolate come from roasted cacao beans. The beans are hulled, and the remainder is rendered into what is sometimes called "chocolate liquor," which forms the base of all chocolate. It is unsweetened and nonalcoholic.
  
  

Bittersweet Chocolate Basics

• Bittersweet chocolate, as its name implies, is not very sweet. It must be made of at least 35 percent of the chocolate liquor but usually contains 50 to 65 percent. Then cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla are added. It is somewhat similar in flavor to semisweet chocolate, but semisweet almost always has more sugar.
  
  

German Chocolate Basics

• German chocolate is named not for the country but for Sam German, who made it for Baker's Chocolate Company. (Its original name is Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate.) According to Baker's, German chocolate contains 48 percent chocolate liquor and more sugar than bittersweet chocolate.
  
  

Cooking with Bittersweet Chocolate

• Semisweet chocolate can substitute for bittersweet in many recipes, but nothing is better than the bite of bittersweet chocolate in dense, chocolate cakes, like a bittersweet chocolate almond torte, according to GlobalGourmet.com.
  
  

Cooking with German Chocolate

• The definitive recipe using German chocolate is a German chocolate cake, with its thick, golden coconut-pecan frosting. Baker's Chocolate Company has its own recipe for this dessert.