chocolate, and a valuable ingredient in its own
right. Natural cocoa powder has a strong
chocolate taste and pronounced astringency
and bitterness. It’s also distinctly acid, with a
pH around 5.
“Dutched” or Alkalized Cocoa In Europe and
sometimes the United States, cocoa powder is
produced from cocoa beans that have been
treated with an alkaline substance, potassium
carbonate. This treatment, sometimes called
“dutching” because its inventor was the Dutch
chocolate pioneer Conrad van Houten, raises
the cocoa pH to a neutral 7 or alkaline 8. The
application of an alkaline material to the
beans either before or after roasting has a
strong influence on their general chemical
composition. In addition to adding a distinctly
alkaline taste (like that of baking soda),
alkaline treatment reduces the levels of
roasty, caramel-like molecules (pyrazines,
thiazoles, pyrones, furaneol) and of astringent,