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Chocolate Terminology
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COCOA BUTTER
(1) The natural vegetable fat present in the cacao bean. Cacao beans contain approximately 52% cocoa butter by weight, depending on the variety of the bean. After the beans are roasted and finely ground, they are hot from grinding into chocolate liquor (which is liquid due to the natural high fat content), the cocoa butter is squeezed from the liquor by high pressure (hydraulic press). It is pressed through fine screens that permit the run-off of the cocoa butter. It solidifies into a yellowish-white fat, solid at room temperature (see photo at right). Most producers then deodorize the cocoa butter to eliminate bitterness and the cocoa butter is added back into the chocolate, where it adds smoothness and mouthfeel—it is responsible for the “melt in your mouth” quality of chocolate.
Virgin cocoa butter is not deodorized, keeping the delicious chocolate aroma with its natural characteristics. Normally hard at room temperature, it melts at body temperature. Photo by Claire Freiermann | THE NIBBLE.
(While cocoa powder, i.e. that made into beverages, is created by removing the cocoa butter from the chocolate liquor, chocolate bars and other eating chocolate are made by adding it back in. Besides enhancing the flavor, the added cocoa butter serves to make the chocolate more pliant.) If it is not used for chocolate, cocoa butter is sold off for other uses, like cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Thus, deodorizing the cocoa butter, which removes the flavors and aromas, can be amalgamated for sale. (Producers of cocoa powder, do not use the cocoa butter, so sell it off.)
Cocoa butter is not a dairy product and does not contain cholesterol. Cocoa butter is to cocoa beans what olive oil is to olives. While technically classified as a saturated fat because of its chemical structure, it acts almost exactly the opposite in the human body. Composed mostly of stearic acid compounds, it is a healthy fat: it has a neutral effect on cholesterol levels and is not a source of trans fat.
Tags: natural vegetable fat liquid temperature butter cocoa chocolate