Cocoa butter

The pale yellow fat pressed from cocoa beans, which gives chocolate its smooth melt, gloss and snap.

Cocoa butter: Solid pale yellow blocks and wafers of cocoa butter with a smooth, waxy surface
  • Food science and baking chemistry

Cocoa butter makes up roughly half of the cocoa bean. It is separated from ground cocoa mass by pressing, leaving cocoa solids that become cocoa powder. The fat is hard and brittle at room temperature but melts just below body temperature, which is why good chocolate melts so cleanly in the mouth.

Cocoa butter can crystallize in several forms, and tempering chocolate encourages the stable form that gives a shiny surface and clean snap. It is the only fat in white chocolate, which under U.S. rules must contain at least 20 percent cocoa butter, and extra cocoa butter is added to couverture for fluid coating.

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Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Small Entity Compliance Guide: Standard of Identity for White Chocolate, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  2. 1.6: Crystallization, LibreTexts (Chemistry of Cooking)