There's cacao powder, cacao nibs and cacao butter. You may have seen packages with the words cocoa and cacao or used the words interchangeably, but there is a subtle difference between the two.
Chocolate is made from cacao beans from the Theobroma cacao tree. But cacao and cocoa differ in the stage of the chocolate production process at which they are produced.
While they both originate from cacao beans, cacao is nowadays used to refer to a rawer and more unprocessed product, which is becoming common in plant-based diets. Cacao is the name for the earlier stage, where the beans have not yet been roasted, while cocoa is used once the fermenting begins.
Once cacao beans are harvested, they go through several processing steps, namely, fermentation, drying, roasting, crushing and grinding.
In the last stage, nibs are ground, producing a non-alcoholic liquor. That is when it is ready to be made into chocolate products. To make cocoa powder, for instance, the liquor is pressed to remove most of the fat.
Raw cacao has more minerals than cocoa
Cacao products are excellent sources of several minerals, including selenium, magnesium, chromium and manganese. The darker the chocolate, the higher the mineral content.
You can try cacao products, such as nibs, in brownies and mousses, although you might find it a bit too unsweetened than standard chocolate chips. You can try mixing the two until your taste buds adjust.
Raw cacao products, made from fermented, dried, and unroasted cacao beans, retain more nutrients and antioxidants, making them a healthier option. Cocoa, on the other hand, is produced from roasted beans, which gives it a milder flavour but slightly reduces its nutritional value. Which one of the two are you open to trying?