We Tried 8 Cocoa Powders — And This “Delicious” Winner Is the One We’ll Bake with for Life

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Odds are you have some cocoa powder in your pantry right now for homemade brownies, really good hot chocolate, and extra rich frostings. The unsweetened powder is made by extracting cocoa butter from cacao and grinding the roasted beans into a fine powder. (The cocoa butter is then used to make chocolate).

The quality of cocoa powder can vary depending on the beans, of course, and how it’s processed. There are two main types: natural cocoa and Dutch-processed, which is treated with alkaline, like potassium carbonate, to reduce the natural acidity of cocoa, giving it a less bitter taste and darker color. Curious to find our favorite, Ali, our associate groceries editor, spent an entire afternoon baking eight batches of brownies with as many brands of cocoa powder, keeping all other ingredients consistent.

Guittard Cocoa Powder had the most “decadent” chocolate flavor. It’s a bit more expensive than most grocery story brands, and really shines in recipes, like brownies, where chocolate is the star.

For this test, we sourced a mix of name- and store brands based on availability, popularity, and price. The cocoa powders ranged from about $4 all the way up to $20, though most were around $8 at the time of tasting. We also gathered input from our editorial team to round out the list of eight contenders.

After a long — and delicious — afternoon of sampling brownies, one brand stood out for its distinct flavor.

Guittard Cocoa Powder earned top marks from nearly all of our tasters, including Ali, who immediately noted its “deep chocolate flavor” after just one first bite. It’s “smooth, balanced, and surprisingly rich with a dark brown color,” she added. Another taster described it as “decadently delicious.”

As a longtime purchaser of Guittard, Ali wasn’t shocked to learn it ran away with the trophy. Still, it reaffirmed her trust in the brand. It’s around $18, which is significantly more expensive than most brands you’ll find at the grocery store. Our panel of testers agreed that the quality is worth the splurge, especially for desserts where chocolate is the star, like brownies and chocolate cakes.

Important to note, there was not a single bad cocoa powder in the bunch; some just gave us brownies with a milder chocolate taste. Ghirardelli is a renowned name in the chocolate world — and another favorite of editors at The Kitchn. So we weren’t all too surprised to see this Unsweetened Cocoa Powder earn the runner-up spot.

As one tester pointed out, it has a “bold, unmistakably chocolate flavor.” Ali agreed, calling out its “excellent depth” with a slightly darker and bitter note (though one tester, who does not like dark chocolate, found it a bit too bitter).

Hershey’s produced brownies that were slightly lighter in color than our two top picks, but the Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder still delivered a delicious bite. One tester summed up her feelings in two words: “It’s perfect.” She also called the brownie “the most brownie-tasting brownie ever.” (Icon!) A few other tasters described it as “milder” and felt it lacked a bit of richness found in some others.

Despite following the same recipe, the brownies made with Valrhona Cocoa Powder had a noticeably deeper dark color and more “intense chocolate flavor,” noted Ali, than every other batch. Overall, the group of testers had plenty of praise for this cocoa powder, though a few thought it leaned a bit too bitter and rich. It’s the priciest by far, and resulted in what one fondly described as “a grown-up brownie.”

We recruited six testers to randomly taste eight brands of cocoa powder sold at national grocery retailers. We really wanted to test the cocoa powder in a recipe (which is how most people consume it), which is why we chose brownies. Ahead of the tasting Ali, our associate groceries editor, made eight batches of brownies with sugar, eggs, butter, flour, and cocoa powder, each one featuring a different cocoa powder.

Once baked and cooled, she assigned each batch a letter — A through H — to conceal the brands’ identities. We also had a jug of water nearby as a palate cleanser on hand during the tasting.

Tasters were encouraged to sample the brownies in random order (to avoid giving any particular brand an advantage) before writing down their thoughts. Our testers then rated each brownie on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = No, thanks; 2 = Meh; 3 = Pretty good; 4 = Really like; 5 = Yes, Please!) across four criteria — look, smell, texture, and flavor — and included any specific observations, tasting notes, and general opinions worth mentioning. They were also asked to answer, arguably, the most important question of all: Would you buy this cocoa powder?

To decide which cocoa powders are worth buying, we recruited six volunteer testers (and brownie lovers) to evaluate eight different cocoa powder brands based on texture, look, smell, desire to repurchase, and of course, flavor.

Tasters were unaware of the brands involved and sampled each one randomly. Each taster independently filled out a score sheet, scoring and ranking each creamer without larger discussion or influence from the group throughout the entirety of the test. It was only after all evaluations were completed that we tallied the scores to determine the winners.