What does pure cacao taste like?

I actually like raw cacao. The white pulp (known as the placenta) that surrounds the raw beans is actually sweet, and children in the tropical areas where cocoa is grown suck the pulp off the cocoa beans as a form of natural candy. With respect to... read more

Roasted cacao beans - Before making chocolate the cacao beans are usually roasted, and they will then have a strong bitter flavour combined with a more nuanced flavour profile of chocolate notes as well as the typical expression of chocolate flavour that the cacao variety tends to show, including fruity, sour or earthy notes, naturally often combined with strong roasted notes depending on how hard they were roasted. read more

Raw cacao beans, IMHO, is not a taste most people can acquire. If they are truly raw and not fermented or very unfermented, you will have a very astringent bean. Like others post here, they would be much better mixed into a smoothie or some other food to mask the flavors. read more