Cacao vs. Cocoa: How They’re Different

It’s a bit of a debate in the craft chocolate industry as to the functional differences between the words, but in common usage the difference is difficult to neatly define. This is because legally, cacao and cocoa have the same meaning, and if anyone tells you differently then they’re either trying to sell you on the benefits of cacao as a super food, or they don’t know what they’re talking about. Guaranteed.

The only real difference between cocoa and cacao is in the implication & context of each word in their respective languages. As a result, there can be rather large differences surrounding the common usage of the two words, depending largely on the country. In this article, we dig into how different cultures have changed the implied meaning of cacao or cocoa in various contexts.