High quality cocoa powder must be easily dissolved and have good flavor. The beans used for the manufacture of cocoa are selected especially for this purpose.

After roasting and winnowing (removing the outer shell from the cacao beans) they are ground making cocoa liquor. The heat which is generated melts the cocoa fat thus generating a liquor, and sometimes additional heating is employed. The liquor hardens to unsweetened chocolate when it cools below 95 degrees F / 35 degrees C.

Pressure is employed to the cocoa liquid (while slightly heated) to remove some of the fat which is also called cocoa butter. The remaining cocoa solids contains 10-25% cocoa butter. The solids are then ground to cocoa powder.Cocoa used for cooking is normally unsweetened.