Cocoa

Browse All Cocoa Recipes



Name Variations

 * unsweetened cocoa powder
 * cocoa powder

About Cocoa
Wikipedia Article About Cocoa on Wikipedia

Cocoa is the dried and partially fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made. In the United States, 'cocoa' often refers to cocoa powder, the dry powder made by grinding cocoa seeds and removing the cocoa butter from the dark, bitter cocoa solids. By itself it has an extremely bitter flavor.

A pod has a rough leathery rind about 3 cm thick (this varies with the origin of pod). It is filled with sweet, slimy pulp called 'bava de cacao' in South America, enclosing 30 to 50 large almond-like seeds (beans) that are fairly soft and pinkish or purplish in color.