The Top Tip You Need For Choosing The Best Cocoa Powder

If your appetite is anything like the ancient Aztecs', you'd choose cocoa over gold any day of the week (per History). And while this all-precious bean was so sacred in ancient Mexico thanks to its ability to make a killer hot chocolate, these days cocoa powder's value has gone up.

Cocoa powder has the power to make our sweets have a deeply rich, fudge-like flavor. Which is why it's responsible for helping us whip up decadent dishes like Hershey's "perfectly chocolate" chocolate cake or a recipe for oh-so decadent chocolate peanut butter banana bread. But before you bake up cocoa powder brownies (or a cup of cocoa Texas-style chili if you can take the heat), you should know some cocoas are better than others.

While this may come as a shock (after all, isn't all chocolate good chocolate by default?) baking guru Alice Merdrich told The Kitchn there is, in fact, a right way to go about selecting cocoa powder from the grocery store. So what is the tip that will define your Christmas cocoa's taste?

Cookbook author Alice Medrich, a trusted voice in chocolatiering, graciously informed The Kitchn of a few different ways that at-home bakers could up their chocolate game. And aside from suggesting chocoholics trade out chocolate chips for chocolate bars and only invest in 60% bittersweet chocolate for their next batch of chocolate truffles, she clued cocoa lovers in on how to buy the best powder.

As noted by the baker, when buying cocoa you may notice many powders in the baking aisle are generally pretty low fat. For example, Hershey's famous cocoa powder only offers 0.5 grams of fat for every 1 tablespoon serving. A tablespoon of Ghirardelli Majestic Premium Cocoa Powder contains triple the amount of fat, which is still only 1.5 grams for each tablespoon of powder.

Medrich says you'll want to bring home the cocoa with the highest amount of fat content (and by extension, the highest amount of cocoa butter) you can find. In fact, the chef explained for the best-tasting treats, your cocoa should have a minimum of a 1 gram of fat to one tablespoon ratio – which may leave you wondering why it's so important to make sure your cocoa (and dessert) have a lot of fat.

Do you like your hot cocoa extra decadent, your brownies perfectly gooey, and your cakes irresistibly moist? Of course you do. As Alice Medrich told The Kitchn, because cocoa with high fat has a high cocoa butter content, your powder will taste extra decadent. And America's Test Kitchen reports that high-fat cocoa powder is also the key to making your chocolate treats taste like dessert and not the desert.

As the outlet explains, if your cocoa powder is lacking fat (aka cocoa butter), then it's making up for it with starch. And we all know that starch is an expert at drying out our food. So by buying cocoa with a high fat content you'll spare your sweets from turning out less-than-moist and make certain they have a perfect texture and taste.

In fact, if you really want to bake the most fudge-like baked goods possible, Medrich told Food52 you should go for a premium cocoa powder brand that provides up to 24% of fat per serving. Of course, these fat focused powders, like Aristocrat Dutched, might be more expensive than their less-fat-infused counterparts. However, if you're planning on whipping up a large collection of chocolate desserts for the holidays, the taste may just be worth the investment.