Cocoa Products

Cocoa products, In addition to unrefined and refined chocolate and cocoa butter, cocoa wastes such as the pod husks, pulp and by-products from cocoa butter can be commercially processed to produce a variety of value added products. These include poultry and livestock feed, fertilizers and mulches, food products and soap.

Cocoa powder

Cocoa, highly concentrated powder made from chocolate liquor—a paste prepared from cocoa beans, the fruit of the cacao—and used in beverages and as a flavoring ingredient. Cocoa is the key ingredient in chocolate and chocolate confections.

Cocoa Beans

The cocoa bean is the seed of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), a tropical plant indigenous to the equatorial regions of the Americas. From the processed cocoa bean comes the fluid paste, or liquor, from which cocoa powder and chocolate are made. Chocolate is sold directly to the consumer as solid bars of eating chocolate, as packaged cocoa, and as baking chocolate. It is also used by confectioners as coating for candy bars and boxed or bulk chocolates, by bakery product manufacturers and bakers as coating for many types of cookies and cakes, and by ice-cream companies as coating for frozen novelties. Cocoa powders, chocolate liquor, and blends of the two are used in bulk to flavor various food products and to provide the flavors in such “chocolate” products as syrups, toppings, chocolate milk, prepared cake mixes, and pharmaceuticals.