Difference Between Cocoa Powder Alkalized vs Non Alkalized

June 16, 2020

Cocoa Powder Alkalized

latamarko Cocoa Powder Alkalized

There really is a name for processed Dutch cocoa and it’s Cocoa Powder Alkalized. You might perhaps take a look at the ingredients or the label and find a link to alkalization for Cocoa Powder Alkalized. Cocoa powder, Dutch or natural, consists of one ingredient: cocoa. The difference is that Dutch cocoa has an additional step in the production process.

Dutch cocoa

One of the best company in Turkey which produce Cocoa Powder Alkalized and non-alkalized is Latamarko and better to know the company has solubility sheet for their products.

Cocoa Powder Alkalized

Regular cocoa powder which is not Cocoa Powder Alkalized

Regular cocoa powder which is not Cocoa Powder Alkalized, is made from cocoa beans in Latamarko. These beans are fermented, fried, peeled, and then ground into a paste known as chocolate liquor. This is approximately 50/50 cocoa butter (fat) and cocoa solids. At this stage, it can be molded and sold as unsweetened chocolate for baking. To make cocoa powder, the liquor is hydraulically pressed to remove ~ 75% fat, and then pulverized into cocoa powder.

Dutch cocoa powder or Cocoa Powder Alkalized has an extra step before the peeled beans are ground into liquor. They are soaked in an alkaline solution of potassium carbonate.

Dutch cocoa was created in the 19th century by a Dutchman named Coenraad J. Van Houten. Van Houten invented a method of using a hydraulic press to degrease chocolate liquor. Hot chocolate at this time would have a greasy, fatty foam floating on top of the drink. Removing most of the fat prevented this. However, it also made the drink much tougher, sour, and gave it a much lighter color.

Van Houten’s idea was to counteract the natural acidity of cocoa (pH ~ 5.4) by soaking it in an alkaline solution. This neutralized the acids in cocoa, raising the pH to neutral (7) or higher depending on the duration of soaking. A higher pH also has the added benefit of cocoa darkening; the higher the darker it becomes.

Cocoa Powder Alkalized

Taste of Cocoa Powder Alkalized

Now you might think that softening cocoa would be undesirable for the taste. However, it has been shown that this is not so. It turns out that the very acidic nature of natural cocoa can actually mask many of the natural shades of chocolate flavor. Chocolate is very similar to wine and has hundreds of flavors that make up its taste profile. These include sour, bitter, astringent, fruit, fig, nut, flower, smoky and much more. Dutch only targets bitter, astringent, sour, and fruity shades, allowing the rest to truly demonstrate chocolate.

There is some misinformation among bakers that the pH of Cocoa Powder Alkalized can affect the loosening of a baked product. Many recipes actually severely suggest using either Dutch or natural cocoa, depending. This makes sense, since the leaven is a kind of balancing action, in which both acids and bases are involved. However, it was experimentally shown that this does not actually happen, and pastries made from both Dutch and natural cocoa powder did not show differences in baking powder.

So actually answer your questions. Again, there is no other name for Dutch cocoa but Cocoa Powder Alkalized, but that doesn’t stop checking for alkaline rot. Nor is there (should be) an additional ingredient that identifies cocoa powder as Dutch. The key property that it provides is just the chocolate flavor.