Cacao v/s Cocoa

I use cacao powder in all my recipes that ask for chocolate or cocoa. This is one of my favorite cookie recipes. I had been thinking of writing  a brief on the basic difference b/w the two and their respective benefits.

The basic difference between cacao and cocoa is that Cacao is raw and minimally processed. It is made by cold-pressing unroasted cacao beans. The process keeps the living enzymes and removes the fat (cacao butter). It is considered to be the biggest source of antioxidants and magnesium. There are three natural by-products of the cacao tree and I use and love all three of them - Cacao butter, powder and nibs.
The Cacao fruit tree produces cacao pods which contain the cacao beans. The outer lining of the inside of the cacao bean is the fattiest part of the fruit which is buttery in texture and resembles white chocolate in taste and looks - this is called cacao butter (I make an awesome cacao butter moisturizer at home- will post the recipe soon).
After removing the cacao butter, the bean is then used to make raw cacao powder. You can use this powder in baking, smoothies, milk shakes etc.
And cacao nibs are simply raw cacao bins crushed to bits.

Cocoa on the other hand is the heated form of cacao that is more popular and commercially more easily available. Cocoa despite going through higher temperatures of heat during its processing still manages to retain surprising high level of antioxidants. If you are buying cocoa choose a version with no added sugars, milk fats and oils.

Chocolate bar - When buying chocolate choose the one with really high cocoa content - at least 60-70% or higher. The higher the cocoa content the darker the chocolate and it also means that it has less amount of other not-so-healthy ingredients such as sugars, processed oils, flavorings etc.

A high quality chocolate should contain just about 3 to 4 ingredients: chocolate, cocoa butter/ cocoa mass, and/or cocoa liquor, plus sugar. Anything beyond that is all crap such as milk or milk products, any oil, soya lecithin, emulsifiers, ‘natural flavour’, or preservatives.
Finding out how your chocolate was processed might be a super tedious process but it will tell you a lot about how healthy your chocolate actually is - Drying cacao beans in the sun instead of roasting them preserves many of the chocolate’s delicate nutrients. Make sure that their processing temperature is not over 110°F. Avoid chocolate whose processing includes “Dutching”, an alkalization method that actually removes the polyphenols, which add the characteristic bitter flavor to the finished product.

I buy my cacao products from the bulk section of my health food store. If I am correct, Whole foods carry Nutiva brand cacao and cocoa powder which are organic although I do not know much about how they process it.