Cocoa Powder

Cocoa powder was first documented in the early nineteenth century in Amsterdam. Pressing most of the cacao butter out of the beans left a powder that could keep for a very long time. The cacao beans at that time were often much harsher than the beans we source today. The Dutch softened those harsh acidic flavors by adding alkali, which also gave the cocoa powder a very dark color—what we see when we think of a true devil’s food cake.