Black Onyx Dutch Cocoa Powder

Black Onyx Cocoa Powder is an extra dark Dutch-processed Cocoa power which has a soft, rounded chocolate flavor. 
It's sharp chcolate edges are mellowed due to the alkalizing process. This Cocoa powder has a vaguely earty smell that's spiked with the gragrance of bitter chocolate, yet boasting a gentle and inviting steady base of no-nonsense deep chocolate. 
 
Processing chocolate for consumption is a complicated, multi-step endeavor. Cocoa beans come in pods that are roughly the size of footballs, harvested by hand off cacao trees once they turn ripe orange. The pods can contain upwards to 50 beans, which are set out in trays of water to ferment for several days. After fermentation comes roasting to turn them brown and then winnowing, which cracks the shells of the beans and removes the nib, which is the key to chocolatey goodness. A hydraulic press is used to squeeze out the cocoa butter, the natural fats inside the nib. Cocoa butter has an extremely low melting point, so as it’s squeezed out the heat from the press melts the butter so it creates a chocolate liquor; this is drained off, leaving a crumbly, cakey material that is dried and turned into natural cocoa powder.
Natural cocoa powder is somewhat acidic, with a pH between 5.2 and 5.8.
In 1828, Dutch chocolatier Coenraad van Houten invented the Dutch process, which treats nibs with an alkaline solution that washes away the natural acids and raises the pH to 7, which is completely neutral. This tones down chocolate’s sharper edges and turns the powder deeper brown. Black Onyx Cocoa Powder is extra-Dutched, left to wash in alkaline even longer. This alters the cocoa powder’s basic properties by raising its pH to 8 and turns it dark brown, verging on black.