The Best Cocoa.

There are a lot of variables that go into judging cocoa. First, all cocoa is either natural or dutched. Almost all American-made cocoa is natural. ‘Dutched’ cocoa does not necessarily come from Holland. It can be made anywhere. The term ‘dutched’ means that the cocoa was treated with alkali to reduce its acidity and make it darker. If you have a recipe that calls for dutched cocoa, I recommend Droste or Valrhona. If a recipe doesn’t specifically call for dutched cocoa, use natural cocoa.

From what I can see, there is absolutely no correlation between quality and price when it comes to cocoa. In fact, the best brand of cocoa, in my opinion, is one of the cheapest. Below are my ratings for the best and the worst cocoas. I only included unsweetened cocoa powders, not sweetened hot cocoa mixes, like Godiva or Starbucks. Hot cocoa mix is a different product.

The Best Cocoa: Hershey’s Natural Unsweetened Cocoa
. Although this is one of the cheapest brands, it is the best. Everything about Hershey’s cocoa is right. The taste is right. The color is right. And most important, it’s made the right way. Hershey shells their cocoa beans and chops them up into nibs before roasting them. When cooled, the nibs are ground into a fine powder. This is the right way to make cocoa, but unfortunately, not everybody does it this way. It is easier to roast the beans first, but that produces a less flavorful cocoa powder.

Hershey’s cocoa sells for 45 cents a an ounce at Berkeley Bowl. They also sell Valrhona, Dagoba, and Scharffen Berger cocoa. All of these brands cost more than 3 times the price of Hershey’s, but none of them are quite as good. Dagoba was the most expensive at $2 an ounce. In my opinion, no cocoa powder is worth $30 a pound. Scharffen Berger and Dagoba are both owned by Hershey.

The Worst Cocoa: Nestle’s Toll House Cocoa.
Small children might like a cup of hot chocolate made with Nestle’s cocoa because the flavor is weak, but few adults will will be impressed by this bland cocoa. Nestle’s cocoa is a little cheaper than Hershey, but it’s no bargain.