Producing Cocoa Powder and Butter

The second route that the cocoa mass can take, other than to make chocolate, is to produce cocoa butter and cocoa cake. The cocoa mass is subjected to immense hydraulic pressure so that it separates to produce these two elements.

The cocoa cake is crushed into a fine powder and then alkalized (also known as Dutching). Alkalization mellows the flavor and makes the powder more digestible by making it soluble.

The other element, cocoa butter, is an almost colorless vegetable fat that looks like pale olive oil. It is deodorized and refined for use in white chocolate and also added to some dark chocolate recipes.