Bake Wise: The Best Cocoa Powder

           About three years ago I made a switch from Shaw's Baking Cocoa to Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa. However, Ghirardelli is expensive! So as a result I baked chocolate sparingly, but I least it was good quality and delicious when I did bake it. Right? Wrong. Taster's in a Cook's Illustrated study said that Ghirardelli had a "smooth but undistinguished" flavor. In conclusion their study recommended it with reservations. Even more of a surprise to me was the cocoa powder that got the best reviews and therefore the most recommended cocoa, Hershey's Cocoa Natural Unsweetened. At 44 cents an ounce it's 12 cents cheaper per ounce than Ghirardelli's cocoa.
          Hershey's nib roasts their cocoa beans, meaning they shell them before roasting them. In fact, the top three brands all nib roasted. Of the four recommended cocoa powders Hershey's came in first and third, with Hershey's Cocoa Natural Unsweetened and Hershey's Cocoa Special Dark, second was claimed by Droste Cocoa, and fourth by Valrhona Cocoa Powder. Powders by Ghirardelli, Scharffen Berger, Nestle, and Equal Exchange were recommended with reservations.

          Cook's Illustrated tested fat content, roasting style, price, particle size, and Dutched or natural. Not only were top brands nib roasted, they had smaller particles creating a larger release of flavor. Whether a powder was expensive, fatty, or Dutched did not make a significant difference.