Updated on November 11th, 2022
What does cacao taste like? This exotic fruit comes from the tropical Americas. They’re dense and crunchy, with fruity undertones and a bitter aftertaste reminiscent of espresso beans. It’s elongated and red to yellow with a hard shell. Inside the fruit are two kinds of food: a seed and a pulp. The seed is sweet and has mango, pineapple, and citrus hints, and the pulp is dry and has a faint chocolate flavor. It is also edible and a favorite snack for people who love to eat the environment.
The taste of cacao depends on its location and the tree’s genetics from which it comes. It can be floral or tropical, with a tangy, sour, or nutty flavor. The fruit is extracted through several steps. The pulp, known as cocoa, is sweet-tasting and is used to produce chocolate and cocoa powder. It is consumed locally, in growing areas, as a drink, liquor, jam, and liqueurs.
What is Cacao?
The cacao tree is native to Central and South America’s tropical regions, and its fruit was consumed by pre-Columbian cultures such as the Mayans over 4,000 years ago. The word “cacao” comes from the Olmec word “ka-kaw,” and Aztec ruler Moctezuma II was known for drinking xocltl, a frothy, bitter beverage made from ground cacao seeds. Today, West Africa produces 70% of the world’s cacao. The seeds (also known as beans) and the fruit of the cacao plant are both edible. You’ve probably eaten cacao seeds if you’ve ever eaten chocolate. To make everything from Hershey’s chocolate bars to Guittard’s gourmet chocolate wafers, they’re fermented, ground into a paste, sweetened, and sometimes flavored. Cacao fruit isn’t as standard in the United States as in Ecuador, but it is used in beverages and slowly making its way to the United States.
What Does Cacao Taste Like?
Cacao can be considered a first step to the chocolate bars we’re familiar with. It’s the fermented seed of the South American cacao tree, which is usually consumed raw.
The flavor of these cacao beans (or “nibs”) is similar to bitter dark chocolate, and it has an earthy, nutty flavor that isn’t as sweet as processed chocolate. Even unroasted, it can have a roasted coffee bean flavor.
The flavor of cacao fruit varies depending on the genetics of the trees used for production. Some cacao varieties have a floral or tropical flavor, and others have a tangy or sour taste. The primary use for cacao fruit is to make chocolate. Albertus Eskes, an Austrian scientist, has studied this topic for years and has even rediscovered its ability to change the flavor of the seeds. He has also shown that the higher the percentage of cacao, particularly chocolate, tastes better.
How are Cacao Beans Prepared?
The cacao pod’s sticky matrix contains raw beans that taste nothing like chocolate. As a result, even raw cacao products aren’t made with pod-fresh cacao beans.
On the other hand, Cacao beans go through a series of processing steps after being harvested. In a nutshell, the process is as follows:
- Fermentation: The beans are placed in bins (with some sticky pulp still attached) and covered for a few days to allow microbes that feed on the pulp to ferment the beans. This is when the distinct chocolate flavor and aroma emerge.
- The fermented beans are dried for several days after fermentation, and they can be sorted and sold to chocolate makers once they’ve dried.
- Unless a raw product is desired, the dried beans are roasted, and roasting brings out the chocolate flavor and adds a hint of sweetness.
- Crushing: The beans are crushed and separated from their outer hulls, yielding nibs, which are broken cacao pieces.
- Nibs are ground, resulting in non-alcoholic liquor. It’s now ready to be turned into chocolate.
To make cocoa powder, the liquor is pressed to remove the majority of the fat, which is roughly half fat in the form of cocoa butter.
Chocolate is made by combining liquor with other ingredients such as vanilla, sugar, cocoa butter, and milk.
The percentage of cacao, cocoa, or dark chocolate indicates how much cocoa powder and cocoa butter are present on a candy bar. The manufacturer’s exact proportion of each is usually a trade secret.
What is the Difference Between Cacao and Cocoa?
On the other hand, Cacao is a lesser-known ingredient used in baking or making hot chocolate. However, with the growing popularity of eating whole, natural foods and vegan diets, we hear the term more and more with each passing season. It’s easy to get confused about the difference between the two because cocoa and cacao share many similarities, the most notable of which is chocolate.
Cacao is the bean-shaped seed from which chocolate is made, and cocoa is a chocolate ingredient. Cacao will be seen as the chocolate industry and botanists’ more accurate or relevant term. In contrast, someone in the chocolate industry may say that cocoa refers to any plant’s manufactured products (especially the powder) or the bean itself. Surprisingly, English appears to be the only language with this problem; all other languages have a single word for all plants’ various forms.
In some ways, the two words are interchangeable because “cocoa” is an English adaptation of “cacao.” However, there are significant differences between the two. Cacao refers to cacao beans that have not been roasted, whereas cocoa refers to beans that have been roasted. As a result, cacao is the raw bean, often packaged as vegan chocolate that has been minimally processed and contains no additives. On the other hand, Cocoa is a chocolate product that has been processed into bars or powder.
Is Cacao Bitter?
Although chocolate products are made from cacao beans, the cacao tree seeds give the chocolate flavor. While the fruit is bitter and sweet, it contains a small amount of caffeine, and Theobromine is responsible for the caffeine-like effects in humans. The seeds are the seeds of cacao, and these are the nibs, which are a part of the cacao fruit. When consumed, they have a distinct earthy flavor.
In general, cacao seeds are bitter and not sweet. On the other hand, the seeds are similar to the fresh chocolate taste, but they are much more acidic. The seed is the most essential ingredient in bulk chocolate, which accounts for its bitterness and tanginess. So, if you’re wondering what cacao tastes like, this article will help you make an informed decision.
Is Cacao Healthy?
Unlike other fruits, cacao fruit contains a lot of antioxidants, and it also contains a high concentration of magnesium. As a result, it is considered a superfood. Some studies have even proven that it can help people with the polycystic ovarian syndrome. For this reason alone, it is an excellent alternative to processed milk chocolate. These chocolates have a large amount of sugar and can raise blood sugar levels, beneficial for the cardiovascular system.
Theobromine is present in cacao, but it does not affect the taste. Theobromine can also be found in other plants. But while theobromine is an essential component of chocolate, it has the same medicinal properties. This substance may even have an effect on your blood pressure and heart. While this chemical can improve the immune system and lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, it can be dangerous if eaten in large quantities.
Some Facts About Cacao
- Each fruit measures about 7-8 inches in length and resembles a skinny American football.
- It has a rugged, leathery yellow or red skin protecting the edible pulp and beans.
- Theobroma cacao is the botanical name for the cacao tree, which belongs to the Malvaceae family. The tree is an evergreen that grows to 13 to 26 feet, and the cocoa tree is another name for it.
- The pulp is known as baba de cacao in South America.
- Before extracting cocoa butter and solids, cocoa beans can be dried and fermented. These are the ingredients that are used to make chocolate.
- Tejate, a delicious Mexican drink, can be made by combining beans with maize.
- Most farmers open the pods and remove the seeds during harvest, then leave the rest of the fruit to rot.
Conclusion
The cacao tastes similar to chocolate but is slightly sweeter, and it is not as sweet as processed chocolate. It has a more complex flavor because of fermentation, and it has a more bitter taste than chocolate and is not as popular as cocoa, but it has more health benefits and is also less processed than cocoa.
Cocoa powder has a sweet and slightly bitter flavor. Its nibs are commonly used to make chocolate bars. The fruit has a floral, earthy taste. The cacao fruit has no caffeine but is metabolized into it, and it is a natural sweetener. Theobromine is also found in coffee and tea. But it’s not as tasty as cocoa. So, the next time you buy some chocolate, be sure to try it!
