Food Ticket: eat your way to Peru with cacao

You’ve probably noticed that the ingredients in chocolate vary between containing cocoa and cacao on the packaging. Though they are derived from the same plant and sound similar, there are differences between the two.

Cacao refers to the beans that have not been roasted, while cocoa refers to beans that have been roasted. Cacao in its purest form has an intense bitter taste. Cocoa is roasted at a much higher temperature and typically supplemented with additives (dairy, sugar, artificial flavours) to cut the bitterness. After cacao has been heated at high temperatures, many of its nutrients degrade. A product that is labeled cacao, is the raw bean, and is usually minimally processed to maintain all of the impressive nutrients that make it a superfood. 

Cacao is easy to incorporate into your daily diet and can be used to make pudding, ice cream, smoothies, or added to oatmeal, granola, baking, and hot or iced drinks. It can be purchased in many forms including chocolate, powder, nibs, paste, and butter.

If you’re looking for a true 'tree to bar' chocolate, Cacaosuyo – which received gold at the 2020-2021 International Chocolate Awards for plain/origin dark category –  is a Peruvian chocolate maker with 100% traceability, paying careful attention to cacao at all stages from harvest to fermentation and processing.