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Until just a few years ago, most people never really knew that you could eat raw cocoa.  Things changed fast though, and you can now see organic cacao nibs on health food store shelves around the world.  Organic cocoa powder in its purest form is simply the cacao seeds that have been crushed into a powder.  This is chocolate in its simplest form.  Here is what you need to know about organic cocoa powder, including where to get it, and the nutritional benefits of cocoa powder.

Where to Buy Organic Cocoa Powder

Frontier Cocoa Powder, Dutch-process Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified™, 16 Ounce Bag This is one of the best cocoa powders, and is processed using the Dutch method.  Fair trade, certified organic, 1 pound bag $12.99	Navitas Naturals Organic Raw Chocolate Powder, Cacao Power, Mayan Superfood, 16-Ounce Pouch (Pack of 2) Navitas Naturals makes sure their organic raw cacao comes from certified organic growers in Peru. $25.56	Rapunzel Pure Organic Cocoa Powder, 7.1-Ounce Packages (Pack of 3) Rapunzel pure organic cocoa is simple and tasty.  Add it to drinks, desserts, and other recipes for a healthy treat.
Cocoa Powder Organic 12 Ounces Now Organic Cocoa Powder is a great product as well.  In addition to being healthy and natural, it is inexpensive as well. $5.32	Certified Organic, Raw Cacao Powder, From Peru 1# This 1 pound bag of raw cacao grown from farms in Peru is natural, raw, and ready for you to add to drinks and food. $12.95	Dagoba Organic Chocolate Fair Trade Certified Cacao Powder 8 Ounce In addition to being certified organic, Dagoba organic cocoa is also certified fair trade.  This is a good choice from a great company. $8.99
Native USA Organic Cocoa Instant Powder Mix, 14-Ounce Tins (Pack of 4) For those of you looking for a something that you can just put into a cup of hot soymilk or other beverage, the Native USA instant cocoa powder is a good choice.  Perfect for camping or simply enjoying at home.	Foods Alive Organic Cacao Powder, 8 Ounce Bags (Pack of 2) This is another great choice for Organic cacao powder.  Foods Alive organic cacao powder is minimally processed and in its raw form to retain maximum nutritional benefits. $18.30

These days, it is pretty easy to find organic cocoa powder on health food store shelves.  While this may be true, many people have also learned the hard way that many health food stores charge very high prices for specialty items like this.  Buying online is a great option, since you can take your pick among various brands and products quickly and easily, and whatever you buy will be delivered right to your door, often free of charge.  Here are some of the best raw organic cocoa powder products:

How to Use Organic Cocoa Powder

Unlike other conventional chocolate products that are full of sugar and other sweeteners, organic cacao powder doesn’t contain anything else.  While it is indeed good for you, by itself it doesn’t taste a whole lot like a chocolate bar!  The best thing to do is to add some organic cocoa powder to food and drinks.  Here are the most popular ways to use this healthy chocolate powder:

• Mix it into smoothies
• Stir raw organic cacao powder into hot soy milk, rice milk, or nut milks for a tasty hot cocoa drink
• Blend it into cake mixes for healthy chocolate without added sugar or flavorings
• Sprinkle it onto desserts

Is chocolate healthy? This is one popular question indeed, and there is in fact a simple answer.  Due to its anti-oxidants, the chocolate is indeed healthy, but the catch is that this is only true before other ingredients are added to it.  Another health claim of dark chocolate (not milk chocolate) is that it lowers blood pressure.  Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, and the pods of this tree with the seeds inside them are processed into various products.  In its purest form, cacao has a bitter taste, hence the addition of sweeteners by most manufacturers.  It is at this point where chocolate usually takes a turn from being healthy to being unhealthy.

Conventional chocolate bars from big candy companies can be full of artificial sweeteners, flavors, oil, and other ingredients that you don’t really want to put in your body.  On the other hand, in the last decade health food stores all over have started selling cacao nibs, both raw and roasted for people to use.  They definitely don’t taste like a chocolate bar, but the crunchy, nutty flavor of them is great mixed with lots of things.  If you still want a sweet chocolate bar that is healthy in small doses, your best bet is to get a dark chocolate with a high cacao content:  Good quality dark chocolate will say right on the label the % of cacao in it.  This percentage includes both cacao solids and cacao butter.  Generally, the higher the percentage of cacao, the stronger and more intense the chocolate flavor is going to be.  Experiment a bit, and see which one you like best.  A healthy dark chocolate is going to be much better for you than a milk or white chocolate.  If you are looking for a gift for someone, make sure you check out our vegan gift baskets, filled with vegan cookies and other healthy treats.

Healthy Raw Chocolate

Although the vast majority of the chocolate eaten throughout the world is roasted and processed with heat, in recent years raw chocolate has gained a bit of a following.  You can now get raw cacao nibs (small pieces of the cacao seeds), raw cocoa powder, raw whole cacao beans, and of course processed raw chocolate bars mixed with other natural sweeteners and ingredients to make it taste good.
You Can Buy Raw Chocolate Here.

Xocai Healthy Chocolate

One of the highly publicized producers of healthy chocolate these days comes from the Xocai brand.  They produce a range of products that have chocolate as a main ingredient, mixed with acai berries, blueberries, and other ingredients that give an antioxidant punch.  Make sure you look at the ingredients before you buy, since some of their products (such as the Xocai Activ drink) contain dairy. Find Them Here.

Healthy Chocolate Cake

If you are a vegan or vegetarian and are trying you hardest to stick to a strictly healthy diet, you are probably well aware of how hard it can be to find a piece of healthy chocolate cake that you can feel good about eating.  As far as healthy chocolate cakes go, you pretty much have two options:  1) You can buy a piece at your local health food store for $5 per slice, or 2) You can make your own.  If you want to make your own healthy chocolate cake easily, I suggest getting one of the Vegan Friendly Cake Mixes Here.  This Vegan Chocolate Cake Mix is gluten free as well.