I would have thought as cacao powder is extracted from plants it should be easy to return to that state? I.e. it is effectively extracted from a water based state? Why does it not just dissolve back into that state?
In: Chemistry
Quick thought experiment: Where does olive oil come from? And how well does *that* mix with water?
But more specific to cocoa powder: it’s a combination of being a powder extracted from fats (that’s how they make it; they take the butter out of chocolate) and so it resists water, and it being a powder (water has weird surface tension properties, and powders make those properties more of a problem).
If you want to mix raw cocoa powder with water, it works better if you change the mix’s properties. Heat it up (things react faster), add sugar (it adds something besides water for the cocoa to mix with), add milk (it adds some homogenized fats to the mix, which *do* mix with water at least a little bit).
Edit: [wiki link I was double checking with](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_solids)
To answer that question you must know that cacao powder does not dissolve in Water or Milk, there are still microscopic small cacao particles that are suspended in your liquid, so its not a solution, like when you put sugar in water, it is a suspension
In a solution the sugar would dissolve in its individual molecules
In an suspension the particles are much bigger and the liquid only holds these particles against gravity, if you let it stand without mixing it for a certain amount of time the cacao powder will settle on the bottom of your cup
To come back to your question cacao does not come from a water based state it is fat based, the cacao bean is afaik to 50% fat and only ~5% water
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