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Cocoa, Cacao... let's understand the different forms of chocolate!
- Apr 29, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 3, 2025
There are many similar chocolatey terms and the amount of people miscalling cacao as cocoa and vice versa is extremely sad - don't be one of them (please 🥹). To help, here's a guide clarifying the difference between all those chocolate-related products to help you appreciate the craft and process — and choose better-quality products.
Understanding the chocolate process easily clarifies the many linguistic confusions below, so feel free to explore my fun overview of how chocolate is made! If you want something a little more direct then let's begin...
Cacao vs. Cocoa 🍫
Common and easy confusion with a very easy fix! Cacao refers to raw, unprocessed cacao bean products (e.g. not roasted, sometimes also not fermented) products while cocoa refers to the processed cacao bean products (e.g. fermented, extracted)! Hence why (extracted) cocoa butter is not called cacao butter (don't know what that is? Stay tuned ✨)
Fun tip, for me to remember this I remember a comes before o in the alphabet as does cacao (raw) products before cocoa (processed) products, thus cAcAo comes before cOcOa! 🧠💥
1. Cacao Beans (Raw Form)
Cacao beans are the seeds inside the fruit of the cacao tree and naturally its least processed form. After harvesting, they are fermented and dried — a crucial step that develops chocolate flavor.
Used for:
All types of chocolate of course!
Raw chocolate (chocolate created from nonroasted or nonfermented cacao, resulting in more natural composition)
Bean-to-bar production (manufacturing chocolate with full control from personally procuring cocoa beans to creating the final chocolate)
Cacao nibs and powder
2. Cacao Nibs
These are dried, fermented, and crushed cacao beans. This results in small dark intense, bitter, and crunchy bits of cacao flavour (and strong nutrient preservation!)
Used for:
All types of chocolate of course!
Crunchy flavorful toppings
Chocolatey raw nut/seed alternative e.g. inside cookies, bread, or granola
Chocolate-making
3. Chocolate Liquor (NOT Alcohol!)
Also called cocoa liquor/cocoa mass/cocoa paste, this is milled or ground cocoa nibs to the point that cocoa butter is released to turn into a paste (cocoa mass/paste specifically) and then a smooth chocolatey liquid (chocolate or cocoa liquor specifically).
Used for:
Solid chocolate
Baking chocolate
Couverture chocolate (see below)
4. Cocoa Butter
This is a pale, creamy fat extracted from the cacao bean after the bean has been fermented and roasted (hence why called cOcOa butter and not cAcAo butter!)
Used for:
Making chocolate bars solid, shiny, and melt in your mouth (if correctly made)
Cosmetics e.g. cocoa butter hand cream
Couverture chocolate (see below)
5. Cacao Powder
Remember the "cacao = unprocessed" and "cocoa = processed" lesson? Well then naturally this powder is made from none to minimally processed (fermented but not roasted) cacao beans (see 1) that are pressed to remove most of the cocoa butter and leave a bitter and intensely cacao-flavoured powder (and well preserved nutrients!)
Used for:
Smoothies and "natural" bitter hot chocolates
Baking
Health-focused recipes and desserts
6. Cocoa Powder(s)
Being made of cOcOa, this powder is made from processed (fermented and roasted) cacao beans that are pressed to remove most of the cocoa butter and result in a mildly cacao-flavoured powder.
There are two main types of cocoa powder:
Natural Cocoa Powder → untreated, lighter colour, more acidic
This powder reflects the natural acidic flavour of cocoa and light brown colour, but varies by brand, cacao bean, and manufacturing.
Dutch-Processed Cocoa (aka. alkalized, European style, Dutched) → treated to reduce acidity, darker colour, smoother flavor
This powder is washed with a potassium carbonate solution that neutralizes cocoa's acidity to around a pH 7, resulting in a darker colour and a smoother, more mellow flavor with earthy, woody notes. Furthermore, not being acidic means unlike natural cocoa powder this doesn't react with alkaline leaveners like baking soda.
Used for:
Hot chocolates
Baking
Desserts
7. Chocolate (Dark, Milk, White)
This is the common product we all know and love! All chocolate types are made with cocoa mass ("brown" chocolates), cocoa butter, and added ingredients...
Dark chocolate
Cocoa butter + cocoa mass + sugar.
Milk chocolate
Cocoa butter + cocoa mass+ milk powder + sugar.
Ruby chocolate
Cocoa butter + cocoa mass+ milk powder + sugar + citric acid.
White chocolate
Cocoa butter + milk powder + sugar.
8. Couverture Chocolate
This is chocolate (with added higher cocoa butter content to look shinier and have a stronger melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Used for:
Professional pastry
Dipping and enrobing
Glossy tempering
🍫 Conclusion
Now that you understand this key terminology I hope you can more smoothly describe the delicious treats you're enjoying but are also more curious to immerse yourself in this wonderful world!
If you love chocolately content like this, feel free to follow me around!
xx Demi
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