Cacao vs. Coffee - What's the Difference?

One serving of snacking cacao contains about half the caffeine of a brewed cup of coffee.

For mood-enhancing, sustainable energy without the caffeine jitters, find your favorite flavor of irresistibly crunchy, dark-chocolatey snacking cacao in our shop. 

Pretty much. Whereas coffee makers have been ideally designed to brew coffee, like tea, cacao can use a little more time to steep.

To brew cacao, grind it coarsely and use a tea bag or sieve to brew it for up to five minutes in boiling water. A french press is also perfect for this. 

For a fun, healthy drink, we love to grind coffee and our cacao beans together. See our Best Black Coffee recipe on our Recipe & Pairings page to learn how. The finished brew smells like a fragrant mocha and tastes mostly like a smooth coffee with some mild dark chocolate notes.

Cacao beans are packed with health benefits! Studies have shown that cacao consumers have a lower risk of: heart disease, stroke, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Plus, eating cacao has been shown to improve cognitive function (attention, processing speed and working memory), mood, gut health and even reduces wrinkles! Of course, 100% cacao is best for health. If you find it too bitter, try our 80% cacao content line: Harmony {Lightly Sweet & Salty}, Love {Cinnamon & Spices}, Strength {Spicy Chili Orange}, or Joy {Mint & Rosemary}. Or for a more indulgent treat, 70% Delight {Salted Caramel}. 

Recent research has found health benefits in coffee too. Harvard Health Publishing reports “coffee drinkers may have a reduced risk of: cardiovascular disease (including heart attack, heart failure, and stroke), type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, uterine and liver cancer, cirrhosis and gout.”

To maximize the health benefits related to consuming either coffee or cacao, try to minimize the use of dairy ingredients, added fat, sugar and chemical additives. Check out our blog to learn more. Topics include pro tips on spotting the good vs. bad, clean vs. hidden ingredients, and how cacao compares to other healthy snacks.

Cocoa beans are the seeds of the cocoa fruit that are typically roasted and ground to make bean-to-bar chocolate or processed into cocoa butter and cocoa powder. The seeds are about equal parts fat (butter) and mass (solids including carbs, protein and fiber). Their texture is similar to an almond. For snacking cacao, we prefer small cacao beans which are about the size of an almond or ¾” in length. Large cacao beans, preferred by chocolate makers, can be as large as a Brazil Nut or about 1.5” in length.

Coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee fruit that are typically roasted and ground to make brewed coffee drinks. By contrast, coffee beans have only about 15% fat and the remainder is protein and carbs, though brewed coffee is virtually free from calories and nutrients. Their texture is quite durable and crunchy. Coffee beans are significantly smaller than cacao beans: varying between 1/8” and 5/16”.

Yes! While drinks are still the most popular way to consume cacao and coffee worldwide, eating cacao and coffee beans are both growing in popularity. 

Minimally-processed cacao beans and nibs are a great way to enjoy cacao's health benefits and nutrients. They have an irresistibly crunchy, nut-like texture without the allergen risks. Unlike chocolate, they never melt! Cacao beans only melt once they are finely ground and combined with sugar.

In their natural state, cacao beans contain almost no sugar. They have a distinct dark-chocolatey aroma and a very strong flavor. For this reason, we enjoy them most when lightly sweetened (like our snacking cacao) or combined with naturally sweet fruits, nuts, or cheeses for a healthy, all-natural snack. 

You can also eat roasted coffee beans. Quite similarly, they also contain no sugar and have a strong coffee aroma and flavor. They're texture is much firmer and crunchier than cacao beans. Portion control is extremely important when snacking on coffee beans; ~10-15 coffee beans is equivalent in caffeine to a cup of coffee.  

If you love crunch and want an on-the-go energy boost, likely Coffee-Covered Cacao Beans will be a better choice because they are irresistibly crunchy (like a candied nut) and never melt. Plus, with nearly half the sugar, more protein and fiber, and fewer calories, it’s a healthier, more nutrient-dense alternative to most chocolate-covered espresso beans.  Moreoever, the generous dose of theobromine will keep you alert without the jitters. 

If, on the other hand, you're specifically seeking a fast-acting caffeine boost, then chocolate-covered espresso beans are the clear choice. Based on industry estimates, a 30g serving contains nearly 10x more caffeine than coffee-covered cacao beans and more than double the caffeine of an 8 oz. cup of brewed coffee!

Cacao and coffee are primarily grown by smallholder farmers (often defined as <5 hectares / 12 acres). Both crops are hand-harvested to preserve the next harvest because each plant flowers and fruits simultaneously. Coffee and cacao can grow in the same climate and landscapes, but each prefers a different environment.

Coffee prefers higher elevations, with cooler nights, mountainous landscapes with well-drained soil, and lots of shade for fine flavor development. 

Cacao prefers the rich and fertile soil of lower elevations, with slightly more sun creating a blanket of warmth both day and night.  

Not tightly. Both are part of a very large clade of flowering plants called core eudicots. There are two clades within:

• Superasterids (more than 122,000 species): including coffee, sweet potatoes and olives.
• Superrosids (more than 88,000 species): including cacao, grapes and strawberries.

Cacao grows on a vigorous, smooth-branched tree that can reach 30-40 feet height.

Coffee is a large, dense, woody bush that can reach up to 10 feet high by 5 feet wide.

Both cacao trees and coffee bushes take about 3-5 years to start producing fruit and are at peak production for 25 years, but can continue producing for as much as 100 years!

Cacao has a tiny flower that grows on main trunks and branches and must be cross-pollinated with another cacao tree by small midges or by hand to create the cacao pod fruit.

By contrast, coffee is a prolific, white, self-pollinating flower that will produce a cherry for each flower.

The cacao pod is a large fruit that reaches maturity in 4-6 months. Each pod weighs about one pound and contains between 20-40 seeds per pod, depending upon the variety. Each tree can grow up to 20-30 pods per year, totaling 20-30 pounds of pods to yield just 1-2 pounds of dried cocoa!

Learn more about cacao – follow our journey in pictures From Farm to Snack.

Coffee is a very small fruit, called a cherry, about the size and color of a ripe cranberry. Each cherry contains two seeds and takes nearly nine months to mature from flower. It takes about 2,000 coffee cherries weighing about five pounds to create one pound of roasted coffee! Like cocoa, coffee bushes yield about 1-1.5 pounds of roasted coffee annually.

Fermentation and post-harvest processing is probably where coffee and cacao beans are the most similar.

Smallholder farmers commonly join coops to share the burden of post-harvest efforts. Coops improve market power and increase access to larger buyers that require higher volumes with more uniform quality standards.

For cacao, our coops:

• receive wet beans already removed from their pods, but still in their white, sweet & tangy fruit
• perform centralized fermentation for 4-7 days (depending on cacao type and temperatures)
• sun-dry for another 4-10 days (depending on the weather)
• sell the dried cocoa on behalf of their members to primarily international buyers

• receive ripe coffee cherries from the farmers
• remove the seeds from the cherries via a wet “washed” process
• ferment the beans in a water bath for about 2 days
• sun-dry the coffee beans for 6-8 days (depending on the weather)
• sell the dried coffee on behalf of their members to primarily international buyers

Coffee is a significantly larger global industry. In 2019, 10.2 million metric tons of green coffee beans were produced for a total value of $22.84 billion worldwide at an average price of $1.02 per pound.

Cacao, though smaller, ranks in the top 10 of global agricultural commodities. In 2019, the industry was estimated to produce 4.85 million metric tons of cocoa for a total value of $11.85 billion worldwide at an average price of $1.05 per pound. By comparison, our partners earned 3 times more for their shelled cacao beans.

As we follow all of the steps involved in growing, harvesting, and processing coffee and cacao, it’s easy to understand that the work should be worth far more than a dollar per pound. That’s why we’re standing with our growing partners for a more equitable future.