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Chocolate is becoming "almost a food group, not a sweet," said Joan Steuer, who follows chocolate industry trends for her company, Chocolate Marketing, in Beverly Hills, Calif. "The over-50 crowd is turning to dark chocolate instead of sugary sweet desserts," she added.

Ms. Steuer, of Chocolate Marketing, said that both men and women "are becoming more sophisticated about what they are consuming, and they are willing to spend more money for it."

In fact, she said, "people are eating less chocolate, but they are eating it more frequently.

Not only are chocolate makers adding new classifications of products; they are also listing on labels where the cocoa beans were grown, the date they were picked and the percentage of beans the chocolate contains.

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