Cocoa solids are a mixture of many substances remaining after cocoa butter is extracted from cacao beans. When sold as an end product, it may also be called cocoa powder or cocoa. Cocoa solids are a key ingredient of chocolate, chocolate syrup, and chocolate confections. In contrast, the fatty component of chocolate is cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is 50% to 57% of the weight of cocoa beans and gives chocolate its characteristic melting properties. Cocoa liquor or cocoa mass is a paste of roasted cocoa beans with cocoa butter and solids in their natural proportions. Recipes for chocolate require the addition of extra cocoa butter to cocoa liquor, leading to a cocoa solids surplus and thus a relatively cheap supply of cocoa powder. This contrasts with the earliest European usage of cocoa where, before milk and dark chocolate was popularized, cocoa powder was the primary product and cocoa butter was little more than a waste product.
Cocoa solids contain flavanol antioxidants, amounts of which are reduced if the cocoa is subjected to acid-reducing alkalization. Health benefits have been attributed to cocoa flavonoids.
