Spanish Cocoa Powder - Unsweetened

This is unsweetened cocoa powder: cocoa beans that have been roasted and ground, pressed to take out part of their fat, the cocoa butter, and milled into a fine powder. Our supplier sells it as kakao isbani, Spanish cocoa: cocoa processed in Spain. Cocoa beans do not grow in Spain, and the supplier does not name the country the beans came from. It is 100% cocoa powder with nothing added: no sugar and no milk powder. We buy it in bulk and pack it ourselves into resealable pouches of 250 g, 500 g and 1 kg.

It is not a drinking-chocolate mix. On its own it tastes deep and bitter, like dark chocolate without the sugar, and it is meant to be sweetened in the recipe or in the cup. The powder is fine and soft; it can form small lumps in the pouch, which break up when it is sifted.

In Egypt cocoa powder is a staple of the home baker's shelf. It goes into chocolate cakes for birthdays and Eid, into brownies, and into chocolate basbousa, the semolina cake soaked in syrup, made dark with cocoa in the batter. On winter evenings many families make hot cocoa on the stove, with milk and sugar.

Sift it before you use it. For a chocolate cake or brownies, sift the amount of cocoa your recipe gives together with the flour. For chocolate basbousa, stir two or three tablespoons into the semolina batter, bake as usual and pour the syrup over. For hot cocoa, stir one or two teaspoons with sugar to taste and a splash of cold milk into a smooth paste, then whisk in hot milk. To finish a cake, dust it over the top through a small sieve. Because the type of cocoa is not stated, keep to the baking powder or baking soda your recipe gives.

Cocoa allergy is rare, but it does exist: if you have ever reacted to cocoa or chocolate, do not eat it. We cannot confirm that it was processed or packed away from nuts, peanuts or sesame, so if you have a food allergy, ask us before you order. Like all cocoa, it contains some caffeine. Cocoa is poisonous to dogs and cats, so keep the pouch out of their reach.

Two things this page does not claim. Our supplier does not say whether this cocoa is natural or Dutch-processed (alkalised), how much cocoa butter it keeps or where the beans were grown, so none of these is named here. Cocoa is also widely sold with long lists of claimed effects, and this listing repeats none of them. It is sold as food, and nothing here is a health claim or medical advice.

Cocoa powder keeps well, but not for ever: damp makes it clump and go stale, and it takes up kitchen smells when the pouch is left open. Keep the pouch pressed shut, cool and dry, away from spices and other foods with a smell of their own, but not in the fridge, where damp gets in each time it comes out. Count on about six months of best taste from delivery while the pouch stays sealed, and about three months once it is open. Small lumps that crumble between your fingers are normal. If it ever smells musty or sour, or has hard, damp lumps, it has gone off and is best thrown away.