A split cacao pod with pale pulp-covered beans, a handful of dried fermented beans, a heap of dark cocoa nibs, and two small bowls of cocoa powder, one pale reddish-brown and one dark, laid in a line on a wooden board

Cocoa or Cacao? What the Two Words Mean, What 'Raw Cacao'

The two words describe one plant, and most of the difference between them is where you are standing in the process. The rest is who is selling to you. Cacao is the tree, Theobroma cacao, and the pod and the bean it produces; cocoa is what the bean becomes once it is roasted, ground and pressed. "Raw cacao" is a third thing, a term that arrived with the wellness aisle and describes beans handled at lower temperatures after a fermentation that is anything but cool. This page settles the vocabulary, explains what "raw" can and cannot mean, sorts out natural and Dutch-process powder and why a recipe cares, and says which to buy for brownies, for a cup, and for a smoothie. Our fermentation piece covers the step where the word changes.

The vocabulary

Word What it is Where in the process
Cacao The tree, the pod, the seed inside it, and, in careful usage, the fermented and dried bean before roasting Farm to drying floor
Cocoa The bean after roasting, and everything made from it: nibs, liquor, butter, powder. In trade usage the words overlap; "cocoa beans" and "cacao beans" are the same beans Roaster onward
Nibs Roasted (or, for "raw," dried) beans cracked and winnowed of their shells After roasting and winnowing
Chocolate liquor, cocoa mass Nibs ground to a paste; the whole bean, about half fat, no alcohol After grinding
Cocoa butter The fat pressed out of liquor After pressing
Cocoa powder The solids left after pressing, ground fine; 10 to 24 percent fat remains After pressing
Natural cocoa powder Powder as pressed: acidic, lighter, reddish-brown, sharp and fruity No further treatment
Dutch-process (alkalized) cocoa Powder washed with an alkali to neutralize acidity: darker, milder, smoother, dissolves more easily After pressing, before grinding
"Raw cacao" Beans fermented and dried, then processed without roasting or at temperatures kept under about 118°F; sold as nibs, powder or "raw chocolate" A marketing category, not a regulated one

What "raw" can and cannot mean

Every cacao bean that tastes of chocolate has been fermented, and fermentation is not a cool process. The pulp-covered beans are heaped in boxes or under leaves for five to seven days while yeasts and bacteria turn the sugars to alcohol and then to acid, and the heap heats itself to 115 to 125°F; that heat, and the acid, are what kill the seed and develop the flavor precursors, as the fermentation piece describes. So "raw" cannot mean unheated. In practice it means unroasted: after fermentation and drying, the beans are cracked and processed at temperatures kept below the threshold the raw-food movement uses, usually around 118°F, rather than roasted at 250 to 300°F. The result is a bean with more of its original acidity and astringency, less of the roasted depth, and, the sellers argue, more of the flavanols that roasting reduces. The last claim has some support and some caveats: roasting does reduce flavanols, but so does fermentation, and an unroasted bean carries a higher risk of the microbial contamination that roasting is partly there to remove, which is why "raw" cacao has featured in more than one recall. It is not a superfood and it is not dangerous in itself; it is a less-processed, sharper-tasting version of the same bean, usually sold at a higher price.

Natural or Dutch-process: why the recipe cares

The difference is acidity, and acidity is what leavening depends on. Natural cocoa is acidic, around pH 5.5; in a recipe leavened with baking soda, that acid reacts with the soda to make the batter rise, and the two are matched on purpose. Dutch-process cocoa has had its acid neutralized to around pH 7 or higher, so it does nothing for baking soda and is paired instead with baking powder, which carries its own acid. Swap them and a cake either fails to rise or tastes soapy. Where there is no chemical leavening, brownies, sauces, drinking chocolate, ice cream, the swap is safe and the difference is flavor and color: natural is brighter, fruitier and lighter; Dutch is darker, rounder, more classically "chocolatey" and dissolves without lumps, which is why it is the drinking cocoa. American recipes older than a few decades assume natural; European recipes assume Dutch; modern recipes should say. If a recipe does not, look at the leavener: soda means natural, powder means Dutch, both means either.

Which to buy for what

Use Buy Why
Brownies, fudgy Dutch-process, or half and half No leavening to match; Dutch gives the dark color and round flavor
Cake or cookies leavened with baking soda Natural The acid is part of the rise
Cake leavened with baking powder Dutch-process Neutral cocoa; the powder carries its own acid
Hot cocoa from powder Dutch-process, heavily alkalized ("black" for the darkest) Dissolves cleanly, tastes mellow; see the drinking chocolate guide for the better route via real chocolate
Chocolate sauce, ice cream, ganache with powder Dutch-process Smoothness and depth; no leavening
Dusting tiramisu, truffles, a cappuccino Dutch-process Milder and less bitter on the tongue uncooked
A smoothie, oatmeal, energy bars Natural or "raw"; nibs for crunch Brighter flavor; the flavanol argument, for what it is worth, favors these
Mole and savory braises Natural, or a piece of 100 percent bar Acidity and fruit belong in the sauce

Nibs, briefly

Cacao nibs are the cracked bean with the shell removed and nothing added: bitter, crunchy, intensely chocolate without sweetness. Roasted nibs are nutty; "raw" nibs sharper. They go on yogurt, into granola, over ice cream, into a cookie in place of chips for people who want chocolate without sugar, and into a brine or a rub for game where a bitter note is wanted. A jar keeps a year. They are the least processed chocolate a person can buy in a shop, and the honest name for what "raw cacao" sellers are selling.

The health question, in one paragraph

Whatever is good about chocolate, the evidence page discusses it, and the flavanols that carry the case are highest in the least-processed products: natural powder over Dutch, since alkalizing destroys most of them; lightly roasted over dark; and nibs over powder. That is a real ordering and a modest one, and it does not make any of them a medicine. The word "cacao" on a label is not a health claim; it is a spelling.

Both powders, nibs, and the bars the percentage piece decodes are at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com. Buy natural for the soda, Dutch for the cup, nibs for the crunch, and ignore the adjective.

Sources & Further Reading

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