Cocoa Butter Guide: Uses and Benefits
Whether you realize it or not, you’ve likely consumed cocoa butter many times and have ever eaten white chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate. Yeah, well, cocoa butter is a primary ingredient of basically all chocolate.
Cocoa butter (also called cacao butter, depending on the processing temperature) is a fat extracted from the polyphenol-rich cacao bean. This was prized medicine throughout ancient Mesoamerican cultures and was even used as currency! Used internally, cocoa butter coffee, cocoa butter in baking, and cocoa butter supplements are all ways to use this rich fat to promote health.
Cocoa butter has also grown in popularity for its purported benefits as a skin cream. Cocoa butter lotions are becoming more and more prized, as is shea butter, for promoting skin hydration, glow, and even healing stretch marks.
How is Cocoa Butter Made?
The theobroma cacao tree—also known as simply the cacao tree or cocoa tree—contains pods full of cacao beans. Cacao beans are nutrients dense full of antioxidants, magnesium, and other minerals.
To create the butter, cacao is first roasted to create cacao nibs. The nibs are ground to make cocoa mass and then pressed to extract the cocoa butter. This end product, the butter, is sometimes called theobroma oil.
The melting point of cocoa butter is between 93 and 101 °F. With a melting point so close to body temperature, cocoa butter wafers are prized for melting in the mouth and, again, their use in skin products.
What Are the Benefits of Cocoa Butter?
Improve signs of aging.
Reversing signs of aging with cocoa butter is a viable option for its ability to restructure the skin.
Research involving cocoa mass polyphenols reveals that cocoa butter is excellent for skin elasticity, tone, and collagen maintenance.
Studies show that commercially made products containing cocoa butter offer such benefits, but we suggest using cocoa butter in its rawest form to avoid toxic ingredients.
Improve cardiovascular health and fight inflammation.
One study reveals how cocoa improves cardiovascular health by tackling inflammation and preventing fatty material from collecting in the artery walls (known as atherosclerosis).
Though cacao in its complete form contains more anti-inflammatory nutrients (as well as more caffeine and theobromine) than cocoa butter—cocoa butter still contains notable amounts.
Research shows us how the anti-inflammatory capacity of such nutrients can shut down diseases, including chronic fatigue syndrome. Cancer research involving cacao polyphenols is also underway.
Improve brain health
Cocoa butter contains stearic acid, a healthy type of saturated fat. According to recent research, stearic acid contains neuroprotective properties that enhance long-term brain health.
Such fatty acids also provide adequate fuel for the brain. Such facts have fueled specific diets such as the ketogenic diet, where high amounts of fat are consumed over other macronutrients.
How to Use Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter provides ample fuel for the body and brain. Learning how to use it in your everyday routine will benefit your mind and body.
- Cocoa butter keto coffee recipe: People add healthy fats to their morning coffee because it provides a much more sustainable coffee buzz. Try blending coffee, cocoa butter, and monk fruit for a delicious morning brew. Extra credit if you add in the Wild CocoTropic Superfood Cocoa Drink Mix.
- Skin products: Rub melted cocoa butter directly onto your skin or get creative with making your cocoa butter skin care products. With some time and research, you can develop a formula you and your friends will return to repeatedly!
- Cocoa butter smoothie recipe: Cocoa butter can add a nutritional boost to any smoothie. It mixes well with ingredients such as bananas, dates, berries, mushroom powders, cacao powder, and nut milk.
Where to Buy Cocoa Butter
You want cocoa butter from a company that produces only the best quality stuff—no additives, fillers, or shortcuts—just pure cocoa butter.
Our Wild Cocoa Butter Wafers are coldly processed to control temperature and keep product integrity intact.
Our 100% raw organic cocoa butter is excellent for homemade soap, lotion, body butter, lip balm, baking, cooking, smoothies, shakes, making chocolate, acne, hair products, dry skin, eczema, itchy skin and scalp, sunburn, and more.