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Fight Rising Cocoa Prices with Cocoa Butter Buds

In 2024, cocoa prices have reached an all-time high—nearly $10,000 per metric ton in March 2024, caused by supply shortages, underinvestment in cocoa farms and investor speculation.1 Baking, snack and confectionery manufacturers will need to adjust their pricing or learn to supplement their formulations with lower-cost alternatives.

This is where Cocoa Butter Buds® by Butter Buds comes in. Cocoa Butter Buds® is a concentrated powder made with real cocoa fat. This concentrated specialty flavor ingredient is a lower-cost alternative to traditional cocoa powder, making it an ideal substitute as cocoa prices continue to rise.


Achieve Delicious “Chocolate-Flavored” Formulations

Cocoa Butter Buds® flavor has medium cocoa butter middle notes with slightly sweet, slightly nutty base notes. This deliciously rich ingredient helps formulators achieve the elusive real-chocolate flavor consumers desire. Cocoa Butter Buds® round-out chocolate flavor and add rich, longer-lasting cocoa fat notes to any food or beverage where cocoa powder is traditionally used.


Concentrated Flavor for Low Usage Levels & Cost Savings

Butter Buds® concentrates are designed to add mouth feel & richness to your formulations at very low usage rates, which means intense taste consumers love with real cost optimization.

Our products deliver the usage rates you need to help keep your costs down, while adding value reflected in your price on the store shelf. Cocoa Butter Buds® can help:

  1. Reduce total ingredient cost without compromising taste or mouthfeel, due to extremely low application levels.
  2. Control costs and protect profit margins, with lower pricing compared to today’s record-high cocoa prices.


Achieve Chocolatey Goodness without the Price Tag

Cocoa Butter Buds® has proven success in a variety of chocolatey formulations:

  • Instant Hot Chocolate Powder: The use of Cocoa Butter Buds® reduced cocoa powder usage from 10% to 8% and was able to round out sweetness and restore perception of cocoa bitter notes.
  • Chocolate Frosting: Using a combination of Cocoa Butter Buds® with other Butter Buds® ingredients—Buttermilk Buds® and Butter Buds®-Ghee—we can reach a 30-40% reduction in cocoa powder while maintaining real chocolate flavor.
  • And more!

Anywhere you use cocoa powder—baking, confections, etc.—we can help you find a solution to reduce usage, replaced by cost-saving yet delicious Cocoa Butter Buds®.

Find out more about Cocoa Butter Buds® and get in touch with our experts here.

Sources:

1 J.P. Morgan, Will rising cocoa prices trigger a chocolate crisis?, April 3, 2024.



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