Cocoa Powder

Cocoa powder is the dry, finely ground product of defatted, roasted cacao beans. It tastes deeply chocolatey and pleasantly bitter, with a fine, dusty texture that disperses easily in batters and liquids. Cooks use it to color and flavor cakes, brownies, cookies, and hot beverages; it also enriches sauces and spice rubs. Available as natural or Dutch-processed (alkalized), which differ in acidity and how they react with leaveners.

Derived from cacao cultivated in Mesoamerica, cocoa powder became widespread after European processing techniques separated cocoa butter from solids. Dutching, developed in the Netherlands in the 19th century, produced milder, darker powders that shaped European baking and confectionery.