The Cocoa Trader Dutch Processed Black Cocoa Powder

I am an avid baker who has been baking for over half a century. My husband loves dark chocolate, so I love to soothe his sweet tooth...lol. The Cocoa Trader got several good reviews so I thought I would give it a whirl. I stumbled across a truly decadent Midnight Black Chocolate cake recipe with Black buttercream frosting. The recipe itself was in need of tweaking only where volume is concerned. The taste, moistness, color & flavor was spot on!!! Many people were complaining about being able to achieve a truly black chocolate cake & frosting. The Cocoa Trader came through with flying colors!!! The frosting needed to be tweaked for volume & a little tweaking for the black color, but again, it passed mustard! I am truly happy with my purchase & although this product is pricy it's worth it's weight in gold. I highly recommend buying this product. You won't regret it.

Great cocoa powder. I used it to make homemade chocolate sandwich cookies and the taste was right on point for what I was looking for. The black coloring is perfect for adding to desserts where you desire the color without artificial food coloring. The bag reseals well and I didn’t have any issues with the powder blending well. I will repurchase when the time comes.

If you are “Cocoa Illiterate” like me somewhat— You need to do some SERIOUS study with this particular Black Cocoa or ANY Black Cocoa Powder that is dark as this—using the naked eye. If you do not believe me, go on Google or go on YouTube and search for black cocoa and you will see ‘visibly’ what comes up is NOWHERE as JET black—as this. Yet it will most likely still be labeled—Black Cocoa. THIS...(that I’m reviewing) would definitely be the BRUTE of a an excellent glass Champagne. When I first tasted Brute Champagne...lest just say NOT what I thought...till I matured. This stuff here—is seriously powdered “Kingsford” charcoal in color and that color means something if you are considerIng swapping this here ‘cup for cup’ —in your favorite chocolate cake recipe. WORD OF CAUTION...DO NOT. Just....don’t. I KNOW how to bake and I sell cakes. I am not however, scientific with reactions and results. I used a recipe calling for 1 2/3 cups of ‘black cocoa powder’. She stated it was a recipe for a ‘wedding cake’ and it looked moist...beautiful. Black. I wanted that. And I wanted it for not a wedding cake but the amount of cake itself it would yield for what I was doing. Suffice to say—she may have used (for all I know) Hersheys Special Dark because her recipe (even her comments before the recipe) did not mention anything on WHAT she used. To be honest when most people bake and say they used BC powder, it is more likely it is Hershey’s SD because it does produce a ‘dark’ cake. Now don’t get me wrong I DO love me some H S/D. But I wanted BLACK. So here’s what I’ve learned after using this BRUTE BCP. The blacker the Cocoa...the more ‘dutched’. The more dutched means less acidic due to high treatment of Alkaline which from what I understand (AFTER the fact of using—still good) the TEXTURE and height—WILL BE affected and THAT... IS CRUCIAL. So ‘cut’ your cups used. If the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of cocoa powder and you want to use black—use 1 cup of cocoa powder and test with 1/2 cup of THIS brand— black. And that is what I used in my most favorite chocolate cake recipe however....While the results was better than the cup for cup swap out that this other recipe call for— I think next time I will use a ratio of : 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder + 1/4 of this Beautiful yet dangerous (if you don’t know what your doing) ....Jet Black Cocoa Powder. Good Stuff. And one more thing. Someone said on here that the package says “not for taste” or something of that effect....that is true. This level of Cocoa does not have a distinct chocolate flavor but a ‘note’. That is because of the processing of it being HIGHLY Dutch. It is or would be best for color but it does add a good earthy chocolate NOTE in flavor. I hope all of that made sense because I really think this is an excellent, diamond rated Cocoa Black. But to avoid giving an unfair rating—know what your doing with this Black Cocoa because you maybe expecting something that is just not going to happen with it depending on what may be.

I added 2 tablespoons to a chocolate cake mix and the cupcakes turned out so much richer and darker in color. Will always add to my chocolate mixes, homemade and boxed!

I really like this cocoa. I used it to make jet black frosting. No dyes needed!