Organic Cacao

Chocolate in all its forms comes from the beans of the Theobroma cacao tree, which grows large pods each holding twenty to sixty beans in a sweet-tart white pulp. Cacao is the name given to those beans and their products when they have stayed raw, which includes nibs, butter, paste and, most commonly, powder. Raw cacao powder is made by cold-pressing unroasted beans, a process that removes the fat, or cacao butter, and leaves a fine dark powder behind.

Heat, mostly. Cocoa is made from beans that have been roasted, and much of the cocoa powder on supermarket shelves is also alkalised, or Dutch-processed, which mellows the flavour and darkens the colour at the cost of some of the flavanols. Raw cacao skips both steps, so it tastes more bitter and more distinctly of the bean, and it retains more of what was in the bean to begin with. The other practical difference is what sits alongside it: drinking chocolate is usually cocoa with sugar added, while ours is cacao with herbs added and no sugar at all.

A little, though far less than coffee. The stimulant that dominates in cacao is theobromine, a relative of caffeine that works more gently and over a longer stretch, which is why cacao tends to feel warming and steady rather than sharp. Whether it sits well in the evening is individual. Some people drink it before bed happily and others find it too lively, so it is worth finding out with an early cup rather than a late one.

Start with a teaspoon or two of powder and a splash of hot water, and stir it into a smooth paste before you add anything else. That step is what stops it going lumpy. Then top up with a cup of hot milk, whichever kind you use, and whisk. For a richer, creamier cup, use two to three teaspoons and take the powder straight into the milk. A long-handled bamboo whisk makes a real difference to the texture, and there are more implements in our cacao accessories collection.

Yes, and it substitutes directly for cocoa powder in any recipe. Because it is unsweetened and more bitter than cocoa, you may want to lift the sweetener a little, whether that is honey, maple or dates. It also works cold, stirred through smoothies, overnight oats or nut milk. There are ideas to start from in our collection of cacao recipes and rituals.

Raw cacao is a good source of magnesium and iron and is rich in flavanols, a group of plant polyphenols that survive better in unroasted cacao than in roasted cocoa. It is also associated with mood, which is less mysterious than it sounds: cacao contains compounds involved in the body's own feel-good chemistry, and a warm cup of something you enjoy has an effect of its own. Our blends carry herbs as well as cacao, so if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking any medication, talk to your healthcare professional before making one a daily habit. If you are pregnant, our pregnancy and nursing tea collection is formulated with that in mind.

Theobroma cacao originated in the Amazon basin and still grows only in a narrow tropical band, roughly twenty degrees either side of the equator, where it needs consistent warmth, humidity and shade. Commercial production today is concentrated in West Africa and Southeast Asia, with Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia the largest producers.

Harvested beans are sorted and then fermented, covered over with banana leaves so no air gets in and turned every twenty-four hours for up to six days, while the pulp drips away. Fermentation is where most of the flavour is decided. The beans are then dried on wooden pallets, turned as they go so they dry evenly, aged for up to seventy-five days, and finally ground to a fine powder.

Keep the canister sealed, somewhere dry and out of the sun. Well-sealed cacao powder is remarkably durable and takes many years to actually spoil, but flavour and aroma dull long before that, which is why our blends carry a best before date of up to twenty-four months. Our powder is packed in home-compostable plant-based cello bags inside recycled cardboard canisters, so the canister is worth keeping for storage even once you are near the end.

It travels well as a present because it is a small luxury most people would not buy themselves, and it lasts. Our cacao gift sets range from a sampler of the full collection through to a boxed set paired with a whisk, and if you would rather choose by pedigree than by purpose, our award winning cacao is a safe place to start.