Dutching: what alkalisation does to cocoa
Treating cocoa with an alkali to raise its pH — which changes colour, flavour, solubility and its behaviour with baking soda.
If you read nothing else
Alkalisation raises cocoa's pH, deepening colour and smoothing flavour at the cost of flavanols — and it removes the acidity that baking soda needs to work.
The process
Alkalisation treats nibs, mass or cocoa cake with an alkaline solution, usually potassium carbonate. Natural cocoa sits around pH 5.3–5.8; alkalised cocoa is raised to roughly 6.8–8.1 depending on the degree of treatment.
The technique is named for Coenraad Johannes van Houten, who developed it in the Netherlands in the 1820s alongside the cocoa press.
What changes
Colour deepens from reddish-brown toward deep brown and, at heavy treatment, near-black. Flavour becomes smoother and less sharp, losing the fruity acidity natural cocoa carries. Dispersibility in liquid improves markedly, which is why drinking cocoa is nearly always alkalised.
There is a cost. Alkalisation degrades a substantial portion of the flavanols present, which is relevant to anyone choosing cocoa powder on the basis of flavanol content.
The baking consequence
This is the practical point most people arrive for. Natural cocoa is acidic and reacts with baking soda to produce the carbon dioxide that leavens a cake. Dutch-process cocoa is not acidic and will not.
A recipe calling for natural cocoa and baking soda, made with Dutch-process cocoa, produces a flat dense cake. Recipes written for Dutch-process cocoa use baking powder, which carries its own acid. Substituting one cocoa for the other means adjusting the leavening, not just the powder.
Covered in this guide
- AlkalisationThe process stage itself.
- Dutch-process cocoaThe product it creates.
- Natural cocoa powderThe untreated alternative and its leavening behaviour.
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)