cacao vs cocoa: what’s the difference?

Both come from the Theobroma cacao tree, and people use them interchangeably. ‘Cacao’ often labels raw or minimally processed products, while ‘cocoa’ is the standard term in farming, trade and chocolate-making. Here’s what each word means, where the beans come from and what to look for on a label.

cacao vs cocoa at a glance

Here’s the short version before we unpack the labels:

Same tree, same beans, so the name on the pack only tells you so much. Want to know what you’re actually getting? Flip it over and give the ingredients a read.

what is cacao?

Cacao is the common name for the tropical tree Theobroma cacao and the beans that grow inside its pods. It’s also the word you’ll spot on products like cacao nibs, cacao powder and cacao butter. In health-food marketing the word often signals less roasting or lower-temperature processing. That can be true for a given product, but the word alone doesn’t prove how it was made or how many flavanols it holds.

what is cocoa?

Cocoa is the standard English term used right across the supply chain, from cocoa farming and bean trading through to cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa powder and finished chocolate. The word on its own doesn’t tell you how processed something is. Farmers, cooperatives and bodies like the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) usually say cocoa, though ‘cacao’ turns up in industry paperwork too, with no difference in meaning.

Want the full journey from bean to bar? That’s a story in itself.

is cacao more premium than cocoa?

Not because of the name. The ‘cacao is premium, cocoa is ordinary’ idea has been marketed hard for years (there’s a whole history of chocolate behind how the words drifted apart), but the difference is in the branding, not the chemistry. In Spanish, French and Dutch, ‘cacao’ is simply the everyday word, so neither spelling belongs to one stage, one group or one grade of bean.

Processing can lower flavanol levels, especially through fermentation, roasting and alkalisation, but the final amount varies with the bean, the process and the recipe, and ‘cacao’ on a pack is no guarantee of a high-flavanol product. The word on the pack won’t tell you where the beans came from, so we show you instead: we trace our cocoa from bean to bar through BeanTracker.

where do cocoa beans come from?

Cocoa beans grow inside pods on cacao trees in the humid tropics, roughly 20° either side of the equator, where the trees get the warmth, humidity and shade they need. Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s biggest grower, and together with Ghana it grows around half the world’s cocoa.

Other significant producers include Ecuador, Nigeria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Brazil and Peru. Tony’s cocoa comes from partner cooperatives in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, which we work with for the long term.

what does cocoa mass mean on a chocolate label?

Cocoa mass is made by grinding cocoa nibs, the inner part of the bean once the shell’s removed, into a thick paste of non-fat cocoa solids and cocoa butter. You’ll also see it called cocoa liquor or chocolate liquor, though there’s no alcohol in it. Cocoa butter is the bean’s natural fat, often listed separately because extra is added to fine-tune smoothness and snap (handy when your bar comes in chunks this big).

Take our milk chocolate 32%. That 32% is its cocoa percentage: the share of the bar, by weight, that comes from cocoa butter and non-fat cocoa solids. More cocoa doesn’t automatically mean more flavour, though. The beans, roasting, sugar, milk and recipe all play their part. One more label term worth knowing: cocoa powder can be natural or alkalised (Dutch-process), which changes its acidity, colour, flavour and flavanol levels.

why does cocoa sourcing matter?

It matters because the people behind the beans do. Poverty, child labour and deforestation are the chocolate industry’s bitter truth. A 2020 NORC report estimated that 1.56 million children are engaged in child labour on cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, and cocoa farming is still linked to significant deforestation in both countries.

Many cocoa farmers earn below a living-income benchmark, the poverty most of the other problems grow from. Tony’s Sourcing Principles were built to tackle exactly that: we trace our cocoa from bean to bar, build long-term partnerships with cooperatives and always pay cocoa farmers a price that enables them to earn a living income. Want the proof? It’s all in our annual FAIR report.

does Tony’s use cocoa or cacao in its chocolate?

Both, in a sense, because it’s all the same crop. Every Tony’s bar starts with beans from the Theobroma cacao tree; we mostly call them cocoa beans, the standard English term, but calling them cacao beans wouldn’t make them a different thing.

Call it cacao, call it cocoa: we’ll keep turning it into chunky chocolate. Grab a 51% to 70% dark chocolate or our creamy 32% milk chocolate and taste for yourself. Are you in?

FAQs

can you eat raw cacao?

Cacao nibs, powders and butter sold for food are edible. But ‘raw cacao’ has usually still been fermented, dried and processed in some way, so it’s rarely truly untouched, and there’s no single agreed temperature behind the term. Check the packaging and pick products meant for direct eating. Cacao nibs often taste bitter and intense, but the flavour depends on how they’re processed.

what’s the difference between cocoa and chocolate?

Cocoa is the crop and the ingredients that come from it. Chocolate is what gets made from them: cocoa ingredients blended with sugar, often with milk or other additions. Dark and milk chocolate contain cocoa mass; white chocolate has cocoa butter but no non-fat cocoa solids.

cacao powder vs cocoa powder: are they different?

Not necessarily. Both are made from the cocoa cake that’s left once much of the cocoa butter is pressed out. ‘Cacao powder’ usually signals less roasting or lower-temperature processing, while ‘cocoa powder’ is the standard term (and can be natural or alkalised, i.e. Dutch-process). Any real difference comes down to how that product was processed.

what does Fairtrade cocoa actually mean?

Fairtrade certification sets social and environmental standards, with a mandatory Minimum Price as a safety net and a separate Fairtrade Premium for farmer organisations to invest. It’s an important foundation, and Tony’s Sourcing Principles build on it. We pay 2 premiums, the Fairtrade Premium and a living income premium, to bridge the gap between the farmgate price (the minimum price farmers receive for their cocoa) and the Living Income Reference Price: the price that enables cocoa farmers to earn a living income.