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Natural Cacao Vs Organic Cocoa – What’s the difference? Find out here

Reading time: 2 min   
Published: 15/06/17

People often get confused between natural cacao and organic cocoa. When you need to satisfy your chocolate cravings, which one’s actually the best? Natural cacao and organic cocoa are totally unique in terms of nutrition, taste and cost. So before deciding to buy natural cacao powder or organic cocoa powder, read on to discover the key facts:

Natural Cacao:

  • Natural cacao is the purest form of chocolate. It is less processed than organic cocoa powder or chocolate. Moreover, Natural cacao is found to be the highest source of antioxidants and magnesium amongst all foods.
  • The cacao butter, the fattiest portion of the cacao fruit, is removed from the cacao bean during production and the remaining portion is ground to make natural cacao powder.
  • Cacao nibs are simply chopped up cacao beans, which can be used as a healthy alternative to chocolate chips.

Organic Cocoa:

  • Cocoa pods are the fruit of the cacao tree and each contains 20-50 beans.
  • The harvested pods are opened to release the cocoa beans.  The pulp and cocoa beans are then piled in heaps, placed in bins, or laid out on grates for several days to sweat
  • Sweating is important for the quality of the beans, which originally have a strong, bitter taste.  The wet beans are then fermented and dried, by spreading them out over a large surface area and constantly raking them, for up to 14 days, depending on the climate conditions
  • Drying in the sun is preferable to drying by artificial means, as no extraneous flavours such as smoke or oil are introduced which might otherwise taint the flavour.
  • Food Thoughts Fine Fairtrade 100% Organic Cocoa is lightly alkalised to a level that is much lower than other brands.   As a result it contains no potassium carbonate.
  • Organic cocoa powder is highly rich in fibre, has little fat and a little protein too.

Both natural cacao powder and organic cocoa powder can be used as an ingredient in various recipes. Natural cacao and organic cocoa provide numerous health benefits and they can satisfy your chocolate cravings anytime!