Van Houten Cocoa Powder Yellow Tin 460g

Lovely soft, creamy, delightful cocoa powder. No harsh bitterness at all. I make it with whole milk, two heaped spoons of powder, and a capful of Monin salted caramel syrup. It's so luxurious. My sister came over the other week, and agreed it was lovely.I ran out of it a few days back and gave the much vaunted Valrhona a try. Although it had a very strong chocolatey taste, and lingering aftertaste, it just didn't have the same luxurious mouthfeel. I might buy another tin of Van Houten and try a spoon of each to see if I get something approaching the best of both worlds (decadent, I know! lol)The Valrhona is over twice the price but only needs one spoonful for a good flavour delivery. However, even with two spoonfuls it doesn't feel as luxurious.If you're a big cocoa drinker then the price is kind of high. And the Valrhona is too high priced for me as a regular drink. But as a treat once a day it's fine. You feel like you're drinking a premium product. The Van Houten doesn't dissolve as well/completely as the Valrhona though, so can leave a little sediment in the bottom.I also tried the new Starbucks cocoa this week. It's sweetened with sugar, so is actually a chocolate drink, but whatever, it's thin and watery compared to the Van Houten's, or the Valrhona for that matter. You are getting what you pay for imho, and as the Starbucks is £4.99 for 130gm less than the Van Houten's, the difference is price is nowhere near representative of the difference in quality: Van Houten's being way better.Hope this rather unstructured and hurried (it's bedtime!) review was helpful anyway.

Bought to make my own hot chocolate, it’s delicious and I even used it for my Matilda chocolate cake. Love this one very good quality, better taste.

I have always heard that dutched Coco worked best for Red Velvet cakes.It helps to really make the cakes red.I have bought many different Coco Powders in the past and I have to admit they still made my Red Velvet cakes a tad too dark, this really is the best of all of them so far.My cakes now come out a vibrant red, with a smooth hint of chocolate.Sometimes my Red Velvet would taste slightly bitter from the red colouring, but now I cut back on the colouring, because of how effective the Coco is at brightening the red.Lovely taste, not lumpy, worth the money.Would definitely recommend.

I loved dutched cocoa. I love the lovely vintage tin that this Van Houten Cocao comes in.If you are looking for that smooth chocolate flavour you find in Dutch and some other European chocolate and have tried recipe after recipe to try and perfect that dark and unctuous chocolatey flavour with little to no bitterness - here’s what you need.Be warned though. The process to make this cocoa loose its bitterness (and make it more Alkaline) will mean you need to add little helpers to make your cakes and bakes rise normally. Whilst you can use regular cocoa in a recipe that calls Dutch/Dutched cocoa ... you can’t use Dutched cocoa in a recipe that calls for regular cocoa. You’ll need additional raising agents like baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.Happy chocolate baking and tasting. Throw caution

I've used both the Van Houten cocoa powder and the Equal Exchange Organic Hispaniola Cocoa powder for some months now, and find them to both be equally good cocoa. The Equal Exchange can also be purchased on Amazon Equal Exchange Fairtrade Organic Hispaniola Cocoa Powder 250 g (Pack of 2) for about the same price per kg as the Van Houten.They are both quality cocoa powders, the difference between them is that the Van Houten is slightly darker and slightly more bitter than the Equal Exchange and this difference is evident in both the colour of the cocoa powder and the smell. So really it depends what kind of flavour you like your cocoa to have - dark and bitter, or lighter and sweeter. However the difference is barely noticeable when used to make hot drinks in my view.The advantage of the Van Houten is that it is made using the 'Dutch' process (check this out on Google) and you get a nice tin (always useful for storage afterwards). The disadvantage (if this sort of thing matters to you) is that Van Houten are now a large manufacturing company and no longer the small family business it once was. I do also wonder about the cost of the nice tin - both in terms of the price of the product and to ecological matters (if that is important to you).The advantage of the Equal Exchange is that it is organic and a fair trade product (the cocoa is grown by small farmers in the Dominican Republic), and the packaging is simpler although not particularly reusable being made mostly of cardboard.

I love this. We actually use it to make chocolate ice cream as well as a hot cocoa. We use a no churn recipe (add to condensed milk and cream) Mix /whip it up and we put it in an Ice cream freezer bowl to churn (not necessary) then freeze. The best ice cream. Can add vanilla or chocolate chips. But it’s lovely. Always have this in the cupboard. Winter brings in the cocoa!!

This is my favourite cocoa powder coming from Holland. It has a higher cocoa content. You can taste the difference in flavour. You do not need as much as English Cocoa powder and is a darker Richer flavour, I would strongly recommend treating yourself to it

I love this cocoa powder.I love the vintage looking metal container it is in.When there is no more cocoa left the beautiful tins with metals top lid will be put to good use.I bought three of these. It is more expensive than if bought in a plastic container but I can use the gorgeous tins the cocoa came and the taste is the best I have tried so I consider it good value.