Best Cocoa Powders to Buy (2025)
A highly curated and consistently updated list of recommended cocoa powders that I have personally researched and meet my rigorous standards.
Edward Mochizuki
How to buy a good cocoa powder.
Every cocoa powder company is going to tell you how organic they are and what sets them apart from the other hundreds of cocoa powders. Let’s see what DOES make them different.
Cocoa vs Cacao: Everyone Gets It WRONG!
Yup, I said it. Everyone gets this wrong ranging from dietitians, culinary experts, industry insiders, and consumers. I have seen a couple instances of articles getting it correctly, but it’s quite rare. There is no uniformity on what consists of cocoa and cacao, and you’ll hear so many different answers that you’ll walk away worse off than when you started.
Captain’s Chocolate: From Costa Rica to Wisconsin
Captain’s Chocolate is a micro-business that ethically sources their chocolate from Costa Rica, which is quite rare from my research, as oppose to Peru, Ecuador, and African countries. They test their product and post the results, which can be seen here. They are probably the smallest business I’ll be reviewing. This is the first chocolate company I’ve seen that contains no lead.
Embue Cacao: Good Chocolate, Questionable Company
Embue Cacao on paper has a lot of great qualities but some unforgivable. They are apart of a couple non-profits and they promote connecting with cacao in a spiritual manner. They have one major glaring issue that does not sit well with me. Embue maliciously downplays the importance of Prop 65 to their customers about the dangers of their the heavy metal content in their chocolate, of which is, in my opinion, dangerously high.
Hu Chocolate: Behind The Chocolate
Hu Chocolate is one of the best examples of a terrible company that hits all the trending buzzwords in organic chocolate and renders their meanings useless (just look at that packaging). They test high in heavy metals and will not publicly post their results, they greenwash their customers about it, and there’s no mention of how and where they source their chocolate from. Hu Chocolate was started by wealthy owners that wanted to own a business and they landed on chocolate. That’s about as deep as it goes.