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Cocoa vs Cacao: Are they the same?
Cocoa vs Cacao
Chocolate products inconsistently use “cacao” versus “cocoa.” They can both be healthy in moderation and even offer antioxidant properties but can be high in calories. If you buy chocolate, you’ve likely noticed that some packages say they contain cacao while others say cocoa.
Maybe you’ve even seen raw cacao powder or cacao nibs in health food stores, leading you to wonder how they differ from standard cocoa powder and chocolate chips. In some cases, there are important differences between such products. At other times, the only difference may be the marketing lingo chosen by the manufacturers.
This article tells you the difference between cacao and cocoa and which one’s healthier.
Terminology
Chocolate is made from cacao beans — or rather seeds — from the Theobroma cacao tree. This plant produces large, pod-like fruits, each containing 20–60 beans surrounded by a sticky, sweet-tart white pulp .
The contents of the beans provide the basis for chocolate products. However, there’s not complete agreement on when to use the terms cacao and cocoa respectively.
Some experts use “cacao” for the pods, beans and ground-up contents of the beans, reserving “cocoa” for the powder left after pressing the fat out of the ground beans.
Makers of raw (unroasted) or less processed cacao bean products often use the word cacao rather than cocoa, which may imply that they’re more natural products.
Bean-to-bar chocolatiers, who make chocolate from scratch starting with fermented, dried beans, only use the word cacao for the pod and beans before they’re fermented. After fermentation, they call them cocoa beans.
Given this variation in usage of terms, it’s helpful to understand how cacao beans are processed.
Summary
Chocolate is made from seeds (beans) in the pod-like fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree. Use of “cacao” versus “cocoa” on chocolate products is inconsistent and varies by brand, so don’t assume one is better or different than another.
How Cacao Beans Are Processed?
The raw beans contained within the sticky matrix of the cacao pod don’t taste much like chocolate. Therefore, even raw cacao products aren’t made with beans straight from the pod.
Rather, once cacao beans are harvested, they go through several processing steps. In brief, the basic process is
- Fermentation: The beans (with some sticky pulp still clinging on) are put into bins and covered for a few days so microbes that feed on the pulp can ferment the beans. This starts to develop the distinctive chocolate flavor and aroma.
- Drying: The fermented beans are dried for several days. Once dry, they may be sorted and sold to chocolate makers.
- Roasting: The dried beans are roasted unless a raw product is desired. Roasting more fully develops the chocolate flavor and gives them some sweetness.
- Crushing: The beans are crushed and separated from their outer hulls, resulting in broken cacao pieces called nibs.
- Grinding: Nibs are ground, producing a non-alcoholic liquor. Now it’s ready to be made into chocolate products.
To make cocoa powder, the liquor — which is roughly half fat in the form of cocoa butter — is pressed to remove most of the fat.
To make chocolate, the liquor is often mixed with other ingredients, including vanilla, sugar, more cocoa butter and milk.
The percentage of cacao, cocoa or dark chocolate on a candy bar tells you how much combined cocoa powder and cocoa butter are present. The specific proportion of each is generally a trade secret of the manufacturer.
Source : healthline.com