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It seems like cocoa powder is very tricky to dissolve in liquid without using a slurry. So how do store-bought cocoa mixes dissolve so easily?

marked as duplicate by rumtscho Dec 20 '16 at 11:13


  • 1
    cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/55840/… Distributing the cocoa in sugar helps (and does when you do it yourself, as well - dry mix them before adding liquid) - a comment there suggests maltodextrin may also play a role. Without knowing the inner details of Nestle Quick (f. e.) I'd suspect that they make a syrup and dry/granulate that syrup, rather than merely mixing up powders. – Ecnerwal Dec 10 '16 at 16:07
  • Essentially those store bought mixes are a lot more then just cocoa. – Benjamin Scherer Dec 16 '16 at 9:30
  • @BenjaminScherer Is there an ingredient in them that helps the cocoa dissolve? – user52037 Dec 16 '16 at 14:06
  • @NotNotLogical consider [this link] (seriouseats.com/2012/10/…) It seems as if they might add some form of fat and of course sugar to it. (But the article is just how you would make starch proteins dissolve and not how the commercial companies do it) – Benjamin Scherer Dec 16 '16 at 14:27
  • Even though your question is the "inversion" (you ask why some powders like instant choco drinks do not clump, the other ones asks why other powders like cocoa clump) it is practically the same, so closing as a dupe. Also see cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/43057/…. – rumtscho Dec 20 '16 at 11:14

Commercial cocoa is frequently "dutched" or treated with alkalai, which increases the dispersibility of the powder.

"The process darkens the cocoa ingredients, changes the taste by reducing bitterness, and increases the dispersability of cocoa powder for various applications such as beverages".

Source (paywall, sorry): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18710243