Alkalized cocoa powder is: Alkalized cocoa powder will become darker in color, although the taste will become better and more fragrant, but the flavanol content will decrease significantly. This kind of cocoa powder is also the most popular on the market. In order to please the public's taste, this type of product adds a lot of extra sugar.

The purpose of alkalization is to neutralize the acidity in the cocoa beans and increase the pH value from about 5.5 to 7. Usually alkalized cocoa powder is darker in color (blackened), easier to dissolve than naturally processed cocoa powder, smoother in taste, and more mellow in taste.

Sometimes manufacturers will slightly over-alkalinize the cocoa to bring the pH to 8 to highlight the bitter aroma of cocoa. Oreos and brownies, for example, are both made with over-alkalized cocoa powder.

However, alkalization causes a significant loss of flavonols (antioxidants) in cocoa. Some brands of high-purity black chocolate use alkalized cocoa powder (such as Lindt's 90% black chocolate sold in the United States). This is unacceptable to many chocolate lovers.

Cocoa powder is:

Cocoa powder is an important raw material for making chocolate and the soul of chocolate. The main flavor of chocolate's rich aroma comes from the wonderful taste contained in the cocoa powder itself. Because cocoa powder contains theobromine and caffeine, it has a pleasant bitter taste.

The tannins in cocoa powder have a light astringency; cocoa butter produces a smooth taste. The bitter sourness of cocoa powder, the smoothness of cocoa butter, together with sugar, milk powder, butterfat, vanillin, lecithin and other auxiliary materials, and then through fine grinding and refining processing technology, make the chocolate maintain the unique taste of cocoa and become more delicious.

Cocoa powder contains cocoa butter, protein, dietary fiber, flavonoids, vitamins and other biologically active ingredients (see Table 10-5 for its chemical composition), which enables it to stabilize blood sugar, control appetite and stabilize blood sugar levels. Emotions and other biological activities.