While ‘raw cacao’ is a popular term, it's important to understand that truly raw cacao almost does not exist. ‘Unroasted’ is a more fair and accurate name, but less sexy of course. In online descriptions and in ways of speaking raw cacao is used interchangeably for ceremonial cacao or pure cacao.
The term raw cacao originates from the raw food movement or diet to promote the benefits of unprocessed and uncooked food. For example to eat raw fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish etc. that has stayed below 40~42°C to preserve its healthy nutrients.
One of the key critiques on industrial processing and many ways of chocolate making is that the cacao is over-processed and over-roasted so much that it loses its healthy benefits and nutrition. A good reason to desire all the goodness that cacao is packed with! But raw food should be kept below 40~42°C, depending who you ask by the way, as all kinds of different interpretations are used so that products can still be called ‘raw’.
So there is a clear reason for not wanting to process and roast cacao. But as explained above even when you do not roast the cacao it still surpasses the raw food temperatures and is unfair to call it ‘raw’. The most honest term would be ‘unroasted’ cacao as this directly describes the key processing difference without making potentially misleading claims about temperature control throughout the entire production process.
Raw Cacao Powder is another good example, which might be nice to choose for in supermarktes if you're specifically looking for cacao powder. But for making ceremonial cacao drinks this would make less sense. Also raw cacao powder is already processed further than raw cacao paste as the butter is extracted under high pressure, and is quite a different product.
Maybe real raw cacao would be the cacao in the fruity pulp fresh from the pod. The pulp is delicious, but the raw cacao beans (seeds) are very astringent and bitter. This is why cacao is fermented and also roasted. To understand the whole process you can check out our cacao tree to drink page.
So, it is still desirable to minimally process the cacao to preserve all the benefits it brings and the healthy nutrition in contains. This includes light roasting, although you can also enjoy unroasted cacao of course.
You can preserve the healthy benefits of cacao by lightly roasting the cacao and minimally processing it in general. Traditionally cacao is roasted on a clay comal over fire. This develops delicious chocolate flavors and can even activate and preserve compounds in the cacao that we want. It supposedly makes it easier for your body process active compounds, although good research about this is lacking. It also makes it easier to peel the cacao beans and cleans them.
So to be honest the term ceremonial cacao is also not perfect, there are various interpretations of it and it is not a protected term. This is why we often call it pure cacao to refer to preserving the cacao as much as possible in its pure form, no additives and also not extracting anything from it. As well as minimally processing it of course by only what is necessary. The quality of the cacao is extra important if you minimally process the cacao as there is no over-processing or sugars etc to hide behind.
To conclude, there are many beautiful roasted and unroasted cacaos to enjoy in a cacao ceremony or as a delicious casual drink. It’s up to you to choose which kinds, origins, tastes, etc you prefer. Or even better to enjoy different ones! Also the goal here is not to judge using the term raw cacao as we know how easily it is interchangeably used with pure or ceremonial cacao. But as so many things are named and claimed, we hope that this gives a bit more insight in what it all means and what matters.
Wishing you many delicious cacao drinks and to enjoy all the benefits this beautiful plant brings.
