You can often hear or read discussions about the quality of chocolates that mention cocoa butter. In recent years, the story of its application has been especially popular in the field of health, care, and beauty.
Why is cocoa butter essential for chocolate making? What do we all know about cocoa butter so far?
What is cocoa butter?
We all know this is not the butter that comes from cow’s milk. Cocoa butter, together with cocoa powder, is one of the most essential ingredients for chocolate. It is considered to be a healthy fat, more specifically vegetable fat derived from cocoa beans. The cocoa tree (cocoa tree) is a cocoa bean in the interior of which contains between 30 and 40 cocoa beans whose almost half of the mass consists of cocoa butter. During chocolate production, after cocoa beans are cleaned and roasted, cocoa butter is obtained. It ranges from grayish to cream yellow, at solid state at room temperature, and goes above liquid at over 35° C. It is especially attractive to our senses because it has the characteristic smell of chocolate.
What does cocoa butter contain?
First of all, butter is considered to be a healthy fat because it contains the three most important saturated fatty acids (palmist, stearic, and oleic), which have a beneficial effect on health. If one adds that it is extremely rich in antioxidants, contains enormous amounts of polyphenols and flavonoids, then it is clear why it was included in the super-food classification. Cocoa butter is 100% fat and contains no proteins or carbohydrates, additives, or preservatives. Of saturated fatty acids, it contains stearic, palmitic, arachidic, and lauric. Epicatechin, catechin, and procyanidin are mainly distinguished from antioxidants. In recent years, the chocolate market has been particularly interested in raw cocoa butter, which will be discussed in one of the following articles.
Why is the chocolate ingredient essential?
Cocoa butter is one of the necessary ingredients that make chocolate. As such, it is significant for quality characteristics such as color, gloss, hardness, fracture, and shelf life of chocolate.
What other application does it have?
It is primarily used in cosmetics because it hydrates the skin so it can be found in various facial creams, body lotions, lip balms, shampoos, and other cosmetic preparations against skin irritation, scars, stretch marks…
It’s good for your health …
It is excellent for boosting immunity, reducing various inflammations, improving heart health, reducing the risks of various cardiovascular diseases.
