Cocoa Butter — Frequently Asked Questions

Cocoa butter is polymorphic, meaning it can solidify into six different crystal forms. Only Form V produces the gloss, firm snap and stable shelf life expected of good chocolate. Tempering is a controlled heat and cool cycle that seeds the fat with Form V crystals before setting. Chocolate cooled without tempering sets in unstable forms and develops fat bloom, a dull grey surface film, within days or weeks.

Natural cocoa butter retains the aroma and flavour of the cocoa bean. Deodorised cocoa butter has been steam-treated to strip that aroma while leaving the fat structure intact. Deodorised grades are used in white chocolate, delicately flavoured confectionery and cosmetics, where a cocoa note would interfere. The melting behaviour and tempering requirement are the same for both.

It depends on how much is being replaced and what the label must say. Cocoa butter equivalents, made from shea and palm mid-fraction, match the triglyceride structure closely and can be blended without disrupting tempering. Cocoa butter substitutes based on lauric fats such as palm kernel stearin do not require tempering and cost less, but they are incompatible with cocoa butter above roughly five percent, and the finished product cannot normally be labelled chocolate.

Store below 20 degrees Celsius in sealed containers, away from strong odours, which the fat readily absorbs. Repeated melting and resolidification should be avoided where the material will be used without full re-tempering, as it changes the crystal state. Under good conditions cocoa butter is stable for two years or more because its high saturated content makes it resistant to oxidation.