Just because I like the taste of something, doesn't mean that you with your personal childhood memories and other influencing factors will agree, so I have tended to stay out of it.
But something happened while I was testing recipes for my cookbook which made me realise that sometimes it does make a difference. I ran out of cocoa and sent Mr Sweet off to the supermarket to pick up some supplies one of them being cocoa and I realised that if you are shopping at the supermarket you might be getting way different results when making my chocolate sugar cookies than I do.
Look at the difference in colour between these 2 cookies, both baked with the same amount of cocoa, just different brands (I checked the labels and there is no alkali in the ingredients). The lighter one on the left is a very well known Australian Supermarket NAME brand of cocoa. The one on the right is made with Woolworths savings black and white NO NAME brand
and the Woolworths no name is soooo much better in this instance. It imparts a better colour and chocolatey taste to the cookie.
I normally use a pretty reasonable quality cocoa for my baking, it's Callebaut brand. I like it. It works for me and the place I pick up my almond meal and other stuff carries it.
So here is another interesting picture, can you tell which one is Callebaut and which one is the Woolworths brand?
Well they look a teeny bit different in the photo but I think it's the lighting, in real life I didn't know which was which. Just for interests sake, the one on the top is the Woolworth's brand.
Anyway I'm going to finish this post by saying that that the cookies made with the other name brand cocoa still tasted good, just in my opinion not quite as good. Also for other purposes like drinking it may be a better option, I'm not sure.
So to wrap up, buy what you like and what makes you happy, I'm just imparting a little bit of info I found interesting.
