What is cocoa butter and what are its benefits?

Cocoa butter is a type of fat extracted from cocoa beans. To extract cocoa butter, small cocoa beans are first removed from the pods picked from the cocoa tree. After that, they smell the cocoa beans, peel them and remove the oil from the beans using pressure; This oil is the same as cocoa butter. The residue of this process is the pure chocolate extract, which is brown in color and is the main ingredient in the production of dark chocolate.

What are the benefits of cocoa butter?
Cacao has been used in medicine and for the production of medicine for about 3000 years, which shows the many benefits of cocoa butter. This material was a favorite of the ancient Aztecs and Mayans to the extent that they used it as currency and money. Recently, researchers have discovered that there are compounds called phytochemicals in cocoa that may also be beneficial for the health of the body, skin, and hair.

Some chocolate manufacturers add some extra cocoa butter to improve the texture and taste of their chocolate. In this way, the chocolate becomes creamier and melts faster in the mouth, which makes us feel better while eating it.

Types of cocoa butter
There are generally two types of cocoa butter:

Unscented cocoa butter and scented cocoa butter.

Odorless cocoa butter
This type of chocolate butter has been chemically or physically altered to reduce its natural aroma. One of the common methods for this is to inject hot steam into the cocoa butter. The result of this process is butter with a natural and faint smell. This type of cocoa butter is usually used in cosmetics that need a milder smell. Also, chocolate makers who do not want the aroma of cocoa butter to interfere with other ingredients used in chocolate use odorless cocoa butter.

The negative point of the cocoa butter deodorization process is that many of the nutrients and antioxidants in it are lost. Most of the white chocolates on the market are made from odorless cocoa butter, and for this reason, the manufacturer has to use large amounts of sugar and vanilla to flavor it; This is why lower quality white chocolates are often too sweet and off-putting.

Fragrant cocoa butter
This type of cocoa butter is untouched and natural. Unlike unscented cocoa butter, the scented type has a pale yellow color and a strong chocolate aroma. The good thing about scented cocoa butter is that you can make white chocolate with it with minimal additives. This type of cocoa butter has so much flavor that there is no need to add vanilla and sugar too much to flavor white chocolate.

Scented cocoa butter also contains more antioxidants and nutrients, making it a healthier choice. Of course, the strong smell of this butter may disturb the chocolate and other ingredients used in it.

What is cocoa butter substitute oil and how is it different from cocoa butter?
As mentioned, to create smoothness in the production of bar chocolate, cocoa extract is combined with some additional cocoa butter. This has made the demand for cocoa butter more than other cocoa products. This is despite the fact that in recent years, due to climate changes and the sensitivity of cocoa trees, the production process of cocoa beans has faced problems.

This has caused manufacturers to think of using oil as a substitute for cocoa butter. Using a cocoa butter substitute causes the chocolate production process to change a bit, which may increase production costs; But due to the scarcity of cocoa butter, these costs are compensated and even reduced to a significant extent.

However, the difference between cocoa butter and oil substitute may affect the texture of chocolate. Cocoa butter substitutes and simulants can include palm oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, shea butter, and other vegetable oils. Of course, availability and reduced price are not the only properties of cocoa butter oil. Cocoa butter substitutes increase the uniformity of fat composition with chocolate extract, and as a result, the product does not become layered.

Also, in chocolates in which milk and nuts are used, cocoa butter substitutes show better results in terms of texture uniformity. Also, cocoa butter substitutes usually do not require heating to achieve the right texture, which can make the production process easier.

Despite all this, cocoa butter is still an integral part in the production of quality handmade chocolates such as Baraka chocolates due to its unique properties and low melting temperature that gives it the unique property of melting chocolate in the mouth. In fact, one of the tricks to recognize quality chocolate is the presence of real cocoa butter in it, which can guide you to choose quality gift chocolates. Remember that nothing can replace the originality, taste, aroma and special texture that cocoa butter gives to chocolate.

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