Cacao
Explore raw cacao powder, cacao nibs, ceremonial paste and cacao butter. We explain how cacao differs from cocoa, which forms keep the most flavanols, and how to use it daily without turning it into a dessert.Read more →
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What the label on raw cacao does not tell you
Cacao is the seed of the tree Theobroma cacao. The pods are opened, the beans are fermented, dried and then ground. Everything else, from powder to chocolate bar, starts there. What changes is the temperature used and how much of the fat, cacao butter, gets pressed out.
Cacao and cocoa are not protected terms. In practice, brands write cacao for beans handled at lower temperatures, and cocoa for beans roasted hotter and often treated with an alkali, known as Dutch processing. Alkalising softens the bitterness and darkens the colour. It also lowers the flavanol content, and flavanols are the plant compounds cacao is studied for. So the front of the pack tells you less than the ingredient panel on the back.
The forms differ more than the labels suggest
- Raw cacao powder: pressed to remove most of the cacao butter. The most concentrated form per gram and the easiest to spoon into porridge, smoothies or baking.
- Cacao nibs: crushed beans with the fat still in them. Bitter and crunchy, closer to a whole food, harder to dose precisely.
- Cacao paste, sold as ceremonial cacao: the whole bean ground with its own butter, so roughly half of it is fat. Made for drinking, richer in taste and dearer per cup.
- Cacao butter: the fat on its own. Useful for texture in homemade chocolate, but it carries almost no flavanols and no minerals worth counting.
- Standardised cocoa extract in capsules: no taste, a fixed flavanol content on the label, for people who want the same amount every day.
That last form exists for a reason. The European food safety authority (EFSA) has approved one claim for this ingredient: cocoa flavanols help maintain endothelium-dependent vasodilation, which contributes to normal blood flow. The approved intake is 200 mg of cocoa flavanols a day. Everyday powders are not standardised for flavanols, so a pack of raw powder cannot tell you how close you are to that figure, which is why cacao sits next to other polyphenol rich supplements rather than replacing them. If a known daily amount is what you want, an extract is the straight answer. If taste, fibre and minerals are what you want, powder or nibs give you more of the bean.
How we choose the cacao we stock
We start with the form and what it is actually for: powder for daily cooking and drinks, nibs for people who want the whole bean, paste for a proper drinking cacao. We ask suppliers for heavy metal analysis per batch, because cadmium levels depend on the soil the beans grew in, not on the brand story. We buy directly from the brands, so origin and processing stay traceable, our compliance team checks every label before it goes live, and independent labs spot-check batches. Ten years of this has taught us to trust paperwork over packaging. See how we select brands and products.
Cacao suits you if you want a deep chocolate taste without added sugar, and it is a genuine dietary source of minerals: many powders deliver a meaningful share of the daily reference intake for magnesium in a 15 g serving. Check the nutrition table, because that share varies a lot between brands.
Two honest notes. Cacao contains theobromine plus a little caffeine, so a large mug late in the evening can sit badly with sleep. And it is a food, not a quick fix: habit decides whether it does anything for you, so buy a bag you will finish in a couple of months and choose certified organic options if pesticide residues matter to you.
Frequently asked questions
Cacao is the fermented, dried and ground seed of the tree Theobroma cacao, grown in Central and South America, West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. It is the raw material behind every chocolate product. People buy it as an unsweetened food for its deep chocolate taste, its fibre and minerals, and its flavanols, the plant compounds researchers have studied most in cocoa. It is sold as powder, nibs, paste, butter and capsules with a cocoa extract.
EFSA. (2012). Scientific Opinion on the substantiation of a health claim related to cocoa flavanols and maintenance of normal endothelium-dependent vasodilation.EFSA. (2014). Scientific Opinion on the modification of the authorisation of a health claim related to cocoa flavanols and maintenance of normal endothelium-dependent vasodilation.EUR-Lex. (2014). Commission Regulation (EU) No 488/2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in foodstuffs.NHS. (2023). Foods to avoid in pregnancy.
