When the first tests into cooking foods were done, they used lettuce. They discovered that over a fairly long time, that lettuce was damaged at around 118° Fahrenheit (around 48° C). Over the years many people have rounded “the lettuce number” down to 115°F. Most people forgot that the heating time is as important as the temperature. Almost everyone forgot that the type of food made the biggest difference of all.

For example chia oil (not the seed) stays stable much less time, while flax seed (not oil) heated to 190° Fahrenheit for a long time will still grow a healthy living plant identical to an unheated seed. Both Chia and Flax seeds normally grow in deserts that reach over 115° Fahrenheit. Typically, leaves (lettuce, kale, spinach etc.) are damaged most easily while nuts / seeds (almonds, coconuts, cacao, flax etc.) are relatively protected. After all, the purpose of a nut / seed is to protect the ability to give life until it finds the right environment.

Recently information came out about some unfortunate and surprising practices of one of the suppliers to Essential Living Foods. Essential Living Foods -one of the first companies to supply cacao to the raw community- discovered that they had been mislead about the temperatures that their cacao butter and powder had been processed at. We're not supplied by Essential Living Foods, but to make sure we are only sharing the highest quality foods, we decided to double check our own sources.

The company owner of our supplier assured us himself that it was kept at a cool temperature. It was his name on the line and we trusted him. Checking in with them again though we were deeply saddened to be told that while they were still below the normal temperature range in the industry, that they were actually going about 2° - 12°C above “the lettuce number” so common in the community. The powder is very high ORAC (antioxidant) count. It's organic and it's fair trade. Raw Pleasure only sells food kept below the lettuce number though and so our we immediately found a supplier so dedicated to cool temperatures that the cacao is all hand pressed. It's on its way and should be here soon. I'm quite excited about it and can't wait to give it a whirl! We need to impress upon you that this is only relative to the Cacao Butter and the Cacao Powder. The beans and nibs are still processed below the 'lettuce number'. 

What did we do with what's left over? We gave it away at 50% off with full disclosure. If you've purchased the butter or powder recently, let us know on your next order of the new stock and we'll give you a 25% discount to thank you for your understanding. 

UPDATE!!! We now stock truly raw cacao butter and powder. They taste phenomenal and are available in store. Please scroll through this page to find them.

Please feel free to Contact Us with any questions we can help you with.