The Nutella®
cocoa
To create the cocoa blend used in Nutella®, we buy only raw cocoa beans, carefully selecting them directly in their country of origin.
Growing our expertise
Over the years, we have developed decades of experience, improving our know-how in the processing of cocoa beans to bring you that specific aroma that contributes to the unmistakable taste of Nutella®.
The unique aroma of Nutella® cocoa
Our uniqueness: we have created the best cocoa blends possible to get that special aroma and unique fragrance of Nutella®.
Only high-quality beans
We carefully select cocoa beans mainly in the Western Africa region. Discover more about where we source our cocoahere.
We only buy cocoa pods from the main crop harvested between October and February to ensure the highest possible quality of the raw material. The cocoa pods are then opened to remove the fresh beans which are left to ferment in large heaps, preferably under banana leaves. This phase lasts about a week, and is very important because this is when the aromatic precursors of cocoa develop.
From the beans
to cocoa powder
We transform the beans ourselves into cocoa powder through a multi-stage transformation process carried out in our factories.
The drying and shelling
We start with the drying phase, followed by the shelling. The beans are put into a large mill that separates the edible part to be ground - the nibs - from the outer shell.
THE ROASTING
The ground nibs are treated to reduce the cocoa's natural acidity and then roasted to enhance their flavour and colour.
The grinding
We grind the roasted nibs to obtain the cocoa mass. Then the cocoa mass is pressed to separate the fattiest part (the cocoa butter) from the dry part (the cocoa “cake”).
The powdering
Lastly, after breaking out the cocoa "cake", we obtain the cocoa powder thatwe use in the preparation of Nutella®.
Sourcing 100% certified cocoa for Nutella®
All the cocoa volume we source for Nutella® will be from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ or UTZ certified farms by the end of 2020. We are committed to responsible sourcing practices for our ingredients, and since 2013 we have been working with several certification organisations to certify the cocoa farms from which we source our cocoa.