Natural cocoa powder
Cocoa powder that has not been alkalised. Acidic, lighter in colour, sharper in flavour — and it reacts with bicarbonate of soda, which Dutch-process cocoa does not.
What it is
Natural cocoa is cocoa powder made without alkalisation. It retains the acidity the beans arrived with, which makes it lighter and redder in colour, sharper and fruitier in flavour, and chemically reactive in a way that matters enormously in baking.
That reactivity is the practical point. Natural cocoa is acidic, so a recipe using it can rely on bicarbonate of soda for leavening — the acid and the alkali react to produce carbon dioxide. Substituting Dutch-process cocoa into such a recipe removes the acid, leaving unreacted bicarbonate that tastes soapy and metallic and a bake that does not rise.
It also retains substantially more flavanols than alkalised cocoa, which is why the health literature on cocoa flavanols and the shelf of dark cocoa powder are further apart than they appear.
- Category kind
- An ingredient form — this is a component rather than a finished product
- Legal status
- Industry convention, not a legal definition
- Also called
- non-alkalised cocoa
- Flavour families
- acidic, fruity, bitter
What the percentage means here
As with any cocoa powder, a percentage refers to residual fat rather than to cacao content.
Working with it
Pairs with bicarbonate of soda. Most American recipes assume natural cocoa unless they say otherwise; most European ones assume Dutch-process. Packaging frequently states neither, and the colour is the best available clue — natural cocoa is a lighter reddish brown.
Related
Commonly confused with
- Dutch-process cocoaBoth are brown powder sold as cocoa, and packaging frequently states neither. The difference determines whether a cake rises.
Flavours it tends toward
Covered in
- Cocoa vs cacao explainedThe untreated alternative, and the one the flavanol research concerns.
- Choosing chocolate for cakesThe acidic option and the leavening it requires.
- Alkalisation explainedThe untreated alternative and its leavening behaviour.
- Cocoa and leaveningThe acidic cocoa that reacts with soda.
- Cocoa research and what you are eatingThe less-processed powder, which retains more of what the research is about.
- Choosing cocoa powderThe acidic option, and what it does with baking soda.
- Natural cocoaThe product itself.
Techniques that work with this
- Baking with cocoa powderThe most efficient way to make something taste strongly of chocolate — and the ingredient that decides which leavening the recipe needs.
- Making chocolate milkCocoa powder does not dissolve in cold milk and never will. Every technique for making chocolate milk is a way of getting round that, and knowing which one you are using is the difference between a smooth drink and a mug with grit at the bottom.
History and culture
- The American baking traditionThe American default, and the half of the leavening reaction most recipes need.
Health topics covering this
- Cocoa products are not interchangeableDefatted and unalkalised — the form in which cocoa's polyphenols are most concentrated, and the one closest to the material used in the trials the health claims come from.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- The Science of Chocolate — Royal Society of Chemistry(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)