What’s the difference between cocoa and cacao?

Cocoa and cacao aren’t the same thing, although the phrases are sometimes used synonymously.

The word cacao has been around for millennia. Its roots are in the word kakaw, used by the Olmec people from 1500BC to 400AD. The earliest known major civilization in Mesoamerica, the Olmecs were the first people to domesticate cacao and use it for spiritual ceremonies.

By today’s standards, the Olmecs would have picked cacao, but used cocoa in the ceremonial drinks they brewed – but what is the difference? The words are often used interchangeably, and although they come from the same plant, there are distinctions between the two.

Cacao

Cacao refers to any product of the cacao plant that is raw. To understand this better, let’s take a look at the chocolate-making process.

Cacao beans are harvested from the tree, and the beans are fermented to develop their flavour before being left to dry in the sun. At this point, the chocolate-makers have to make a choice between whether to roast the beans first, or just use the raw beans. For cacao products, the raw beans are chopped and crushed to make a cacao liquor. This is then cold-pressed to separate the cacao butter from the cacao mass, which is then dried to form cacao powder.

Cocoa

Cocoa, on the other hand, comes from beans that have been fermented and then roasted rather than air dried, but the rest of the process remains the same. Roasting the beans has various effects; it separates the outer husk from the inner bean, and sterilises the cacao bean after fermentation. The time and temperature that the beans are roasted at also influences the flavour of the cocoa, removing some of the acidic notes and helping the bright, chocolate-forward flavors develop.

What’s the difference?

To the naked eye, cocoa powder is darker than cacao powder, but there is also a difference in taste. According to a study carried out in Brazil, which compared the effect of roasting cacao beans on the flavour of chocolate, unroasted cacao beans have a “bitter, acidic, astringent, and nutty flavor,” and added that a medium roast on the cocoa beans resulted in more positive reviews from the study participants.

There is also the difference between Dutch-processed cocoa and normal cocoa. Dutch-processed cocoa uses roasted cacao beans, but also treats the cacao beans with an alkaline solution to reduce acidity, making the end result less bitter and more soluble. Whilst this may make the flavour more palatable to some, it significantly reduces the levels of flavanols in the mixture, which are purported to have health benefits.

You can use the two different powders interchangeably. Cacao powder is a great addition to smoothies, as it contains on average 20% more protein than cocoa powder, but you might want to add more sugar due to it having a slightly more bitter flavour.

At Hotel Chocolat, we use cocoa in our chocolate but cacao in our beauty and home products. This gives our moisturisers and candles a mellow, natural cacao scent without smelling overpoweringly of chocolate and making you hungry!

How can I tell which is which when buying?

Although there is a difference between cacao and cocoa, in the UK most people refer to all chocolate derivatives as cocoa, so it can be difficult to tell the difference in a shop. If you want cacao, then make sure the label says that the product is “raw.”

At Hotel Chocolat, we grow some of our own beans on our St Lucia plantations, giving us an in-depth knowledge of how to craft the perfect chocolate. We carefully roast our beans to bring out their flavour, taste-testing and experimenting until we have the perfect recipe to create the a no holds barred chocolate full of rich chocolate flavour, never too bitter, never too sweet.