It takes much longer to stir cacao powder to dissolve in water than it does for other substances such as sugar. Why is it so hard to dissolve cocoa powder in water?

Question

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

Answer 1

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)