Lipid and hardness characteristics of cocoa butters from different geographic regions

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Abstract
Twenty‐four commercially pressed cocoa butters and 39 laboratory solvent extracted cocoa butters were evaluated. A rapid method using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to evaluate the hardness of small quantities of cocoa butter. In the DSC thermogram of a quenched sample, the percentage area under the polymorph II endotherm had a positive correlation (r=0.74) with the mechanical hardness. Soft cocoa butters were characterized by high POO, SOO content (P=palmitic acid, O=oleic acid, S=stearic acid), high iodine value, low percentage, area under the polymorph II endotherm from the DSC scanning, and low SOS. Hard cocoa butters displayed opposite characteristics. In general, South American cocoa butters were the softest and had a 37.03 iodine value, a total of 9.1% POO and SOO, and a 26.4% area under the polymorph II endotherm. Cocoa butters from Asia and Oceania were the hardest and had a 34.74 iodine value, a total of 4.1% POO and SOO, and a 35.65% area under the polymorph II endotherm. North and Central American and African cocoa butters were intermediate in hardness characteristics.