When cocoa prices spiked a few years ago most of the mass market chocolate makers started replacing natural cocoa butter with palm oil to save money. The resulting chocolate doesn’t have the same authentic chocolate taste and is often described as waxy and greasy. Palm oil simply doesn’t have the same flavour and melt in the mouth texture. Apart from it being bad for the environment and orangutans its bad for health and doesn’t taste good! Support chocolate makers that use cacao butter.
I made this short video after seeing the vast majority of chocolate eggs on sale were made with palm oil. A small percentage do claim to be from sustainable sources but corruption in the supply chain is apparently rife so even “sustainable palm oil” may contribute to the destruction of the rainforest.
Does Chocolate Now Not Taste as Good?
More Sugar Less Cocoa
Also, many chocolate makers did change their recipes to add more sugar and less cocoa when the cocoa price spiked making the resulting chocolate oversweet and even more detrimental to health.
Text from video
- All Chocolate Lovers Need to know this
- Does chocolate now not taste as good?
- Many chocolate makers have replaced cocoa butter with palm oil.
- This increases profits as palm oil is cheaper & doesn’t require tempering.
- Palm oil production is responsible for the destruction of the rainforest.
- This threatens the survival of orangutans.
- Palm oil found in chocolate is highly processed and is not healthy.
- Palm oil chocolate doesn’t taste good; often described as waxy and greasy with less taste.
- Cocoa butter is crucial to the real flavour of chocolate.
- Cocoa butter is made by pressing cocoa beans to extract the butter. It tastes smooth, buttery and melts in the mouth.
- “Chocolate” made without cocoa butter is vegelate.
- Palm oil can be hidden as vegetable oil and difficult to detect.
- For good quality chocolate only buy chocolate made with cocoa butter and no added oil.
- Share this if you don’t want palm oil in chocolate.
- Tag a friend that loves chocolate.
For vegan and healthy chocolate recipes free of palm oil (like Nutella-free Nutella fudge) see Nest and Glow Healthy Recipes.