Cacao vs. Cocoa. Enjoy Islands Chocolate
Chocolate Comes In Different Forms. A Brief Overview
As well as all our coffee subscriptions we also offer our favourite drinking chocolate, Islands, within our Pantry because, well, who doesn’t enjoy a bit of chocolate every so often? However, not just any hot chocolate makes the grade for our Pantry and we like to take it up a notch and offer only the finest chocolate. Ever wondered about the terminology of cocoa and cacao? Here we provide you a bit of a crash course so that you know exactly what you’re looking at.
Firstly, it’s worth mentioning that all chocolate isn’t made equal and it comes in many different forms. The two forms that often cause the most confusion are cocoa and cacao. To start with the basics, chocolate is produced by harvesting the beans of the cacao tree. The tree grows fruit and within the fruit pods we find the beans themselves. These beans form the foundation of all chocolate products, so why have different names?
Experts have long argued the issues surrounding the terminology with some stating that cacao is the name of the product produced by grounding down the beans and the term cocoa is only used when the fat is extracted from the beans themselves. Others prefer to use the terms to differentiate the natural processing of chocolate, with cacao often being used to describe chocolate that has been made with more natural products.
When chocolate is produced, the cacao beans found within the pods don’t resemble the taste of chocolate at the point of harvest. This means they have to be processed and treated in order for the taste to resemble what we know to be that sweet, silky and rich texture of chocolate. How chocolate is processed widely changes the taste, as well as any perceived health benefits; we’ll get on to these shortly. The addition of ingredients such as milk, vanilla, and cocoa butter in varying quantities will determine the intensity of that chocolate flavour we all know and love.
Purchasing high quality chocolate for health reasons
If you’re shopping for brands such as Cadbury or Nestle then there’s really not too much to consider as the health benefits and ingredients are more often than not outweighed by the sugar content and shouldn’t really be considered if you want to explore high quality, naturally-rich chocolate. Period, right... glad we've that out the way.
It is generally accepted that the higher the cacao content, the more nutritionally rich the chocolate will be as the cacao beans themselves are naturally occurring - they are essentially a fruit. Typically if a chocolate has a higher ratio of cacao then the chocolate will be darker. Often the labels of dark chocolate products will have a percentage value which states what percentage of the product is made of cacao. The trade-off is the higher the percentage of cacao the more bitter the chocolate will taste as there is less milk and sugar which are typically ingredients that make chocolate ‘sweet’. With that being said, the quality of the beans, as with any ingredient, will dramatically impact the flavour so if you are selecting a higher cacao percentage artisanal chocolate, you may be surprised at just how smooth and flavoursome it is compared to cheaper alternatives.
The benefits of selecting chocolate with a higher percentage of cacao is because cacao itself is naturally rich in a number of different minerals. The plant-based properties of cacao make it naturally high in antioxidants that have known benefits in maintaining heart health. It is also a good source of iron which is readily absorbed by the body in this form. Other plant-sourced iron isn’t as easily absorbed which makes cacao a great supplement for anyone deficient in iron.
However, don't forget the calorific content...
With all these known benefits, it also important to keep in mind that these products have a high calorific content so should only be consumed in small doses. Also, even high cacao percentage will contain some sugars and so it is vital we limit consumption to ensure good dental health. There you have it, a very brief insight into cacao and hopefully we’ve cleared up some confusion with cocoa.
Enjoy Islands hot chocolate powder and flakes
Islands use the finest flavour cocoa from two locations in the Caribbean, from their own farms in St Vincent and the Grenadines as well as from their partner farms in the Dominican Republic. Sounds standard? It’s not. Most cocoa comes from West Africa where it is bought by large multi-national companies via numerous traders to mass-produce industrial chocolate in massive factories. Traceability is opaque, environmental issues greenwashed and ethics sit a long way behind profit considerations, if at all. Islands sit in the exceedingly rare minority of the chocolate industry – not only do Islands know their product inside out and are able to trace it from start to finish, they also act as both cocoa farmers and chocolatiers, making a huge difference at source.
In addition, Islands work closely with both St Vincent and Dominican Republic governments to ensure that their cocoa farms comply with the highest ethical standards and are child labour-free. Deforestation is also an ever-present threat, and both Islands and its farmers make a valuable contribution to slowing and even reversing deforestation nationally. Publishing all their traceability reports of when and where their cacao comes from, enjoy Islands hot chocolate safe in the knowledge that the chocolate you're enjoying is also doing a lot of good to its communities.
GUSTATORY (adjective): curating excellence in taste.