Chocolate is a timeless flavor, and one of the world’s most beloved delicacies.
You’ll find chocolate in cakes, ice creams, cookies, smoothies, whey proteins, spreads, drinks – the list goes on and on! It just fits so well with nearly everything, and is absolutely delicious even on its own!
Now, adding the chocolate flavor to things can be done in many ways, including cocoa powder, cocoa nibs, chocolate liqueur, and just straight chocolate. However, chocolate extract may be good to look at…
Chocolate extract is the perfect thing for adding the chocolate flavor into anything you want with just a few drops! And, it’s even better at enhancing the chocolate flavor in chocolate dishes, boosting the delicious taste to the moon!
We’ve tested many chocolate extracts, ranking the best ones to give you a list of products that you won’t regret using – and we’ve tossed out anything with artificial ingredients, as those are leagues below the ones we’ve listed here.
Let’s check them out!
What is chocolate extract?
Chocolate extract is really interesting. It’s made by putting cocoa beans in an alcohol, which is often unflavored vodka. This alcohol takes all the delicious flavors from the cocoa beans over a long period of time, usually a couple of weeks. It’s then strained, leaving us with a delicious chocolate flavor!
It’s quite similar to vanilla extract in terms of how it’s made, and it lasts super long because of the shelf-stable properties of the alcohol. Chocolate extract has a powerful chocolate flavor and a great aroma, making it effective in most dishes with just a few drops!
And don’t worry, you won’t really notice the alcohol – especially when you bake and cook with it because the alcohol will simply bake out!
How to use chocolate extract in recipes
You can technically use chocolate extract to add the delicious chocolate flavor into anything you want. However, it’s best used to highlight and enhance the chocolate flavor in chocolate dishes – like brownies and fudge!
It’s also a great substitute for vanilla extract, which can create some delicious flavor twists if you replace the vanilla extract that a recipe calls for with chocolate extract. Vanilla Bean Kings, which is a brand we’ll talk more about in our rankings, recommends starting with ¼ of a teaspoon of chocolate extract in most foods, then adding more chocolate extract as desired.
Now, you can use it instead of cocoa powder, for example, substituting 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder with 1 teaspoon of chocolate extract. You can use the same substitution ratio for cocoa nibs.
I don’t recommend substituting chocolate in recipes completely with chocolate extract, as that’ll change the texture – chocolate extract is best used when you don’t want to change the texture of something while adding chocolate flavoring.
So, try it in your desserts, bakes, puddings, sauces, frostings – anything that needs or has chocolate! The extra pop of flavor will be well worth it!
4 great recipes to use your chocolate extract
With chocolate extract providing a rich and delicious flavor, you can use it instead of something like vanilla extract or use it to boost a chocolate recipe:
- Homemade Nutella: Nutella is one of my guilty pleasures, but a homemade version that leaves out a lot of the unhealthy ingredients can be a whole lot lighter on the conscience! Add a couple drops of chocolate extract in this great recipe to get an extra boost of the flavor!
- Homemade chocolate milk: Who doesn’t love chocolate milk? This recipe calls for cocoa powder, which you can replace for chocolate extract like we talked about! Or, add a few drops to the finished product and get an even stronger chocolate milk!
- Almond flour pancakes: Pancakes are a staple breakfast food, but you’ll be wanting to eat these delicious almond flour ones for all 3 meals of the day! This is a recipe where you can try switching out the vanilla extract for chocolate extract, creating an interesting flavor twist to a classic – plus, the nuttiness of the almond flour and the chocolate flavor go together so well!
- Almond flour chocolate chip cookies: Chocolate chips, nutty almond flour…this is the perfect recipe for chocolate extract! You can switch out or match the vanilla extract with chocolate extract to boost the chocolate chip flavor, but I recommend keeping the vanilla extract on top of the chocolate extract to combine these two delicious flavors!
How to choose the best chocolate extract
Finding the best chocolate extract can be a little tricky, as there are a ton of options! However, we’ve done the research for you, and have created a list of criteria that every product needs to go through for us to consider it:
- Ingredients: We value natural ingredients over artificial ones, as natural ones will provide the best flavors and best quality.
- Consumer feedback: Looking at what people liked and disliked about a product after using it provides us with a lot of valuable information, as we get to hear a bunch of unique perspectives!
- Track record: A product needs to come from a brand that has a good reputation, as we don’t support unethical practices, scandals, and sketchy ingredient lists.
- Price: From budget-friendly to more luxurious prices, there’s a chocolate extract for everyone!
Now, let’s take a look at the rankings!
#1 Best Overall: Frontier Co-op
The best overall chocolate extract comes from Frontier Co-op!
They’ve really amazed us with their chocolate extract, providing a wonderful product with bold and balanced flavors. This chocolate extract is absolutely delicious, and will enhance whatever you add it to with an amazing chocolate flavor!
It’s also organic – this is impressive because as much as I like organic products, they sometimes have issues with tastes and would need sweeteners or artificial ingredients to enhance it.
But not this one. It’s completely natural, and your mouth will water with the amazing flavors it offers!
Also, Frontier Co-op is a co-op, which means it’s member owned. They boast 40,000 member owners, and they prioritize ethical practices to make the world a better place – that’s something great to support!
Ingredients: Organic Agave Syrup, Organic Alcohol, Water, Organic Cocoa Extractives.
#2 Best Value: OliveNation
The best value chocolate extract is from OliveNation!
OliveNation makes some amazing flavoring agents, and we really like what they do. Their chocolate extract is absolutely delicious, and offers a wonderful way to add or enhance the chocolate flavor in anything you want.
Plus, it’s non-GMO and kosher-certified, giving another reason as to why this is such a great product! You can also get it for the price of $1.12 per fluid ounce, which is the most affordable on this list – that’s an amazing value for this quality of a product!
Give OliveNation chocolate extract a try!
Ingredients: Water, Alcohol, Chocolate Concentrate and Vanilla Extract (Alcohol, Water, and Select Vanilla Beans).
#3 Best Organic: Rodelle
The best organic chocolate extract goes to Rodelle!
First of all, this chocolate extract is completely organic like number 1. On top of that, it provides such a powerful and balanced flavor profile that’ll make you want to reach for it over and over again!
However, Rodelle takes it a step further in terms of being environmentally focused…
Their facility is wind powered, and a portion of their profits from each sold chocolate extract goes to support environmental and reforestation initiatives by the Trees, Water, & People organization.
So, you get to enjoy an absolutely delicious and organic chocolate extract while supporting an awesome cause – that’s a win-win!
Ingredients: Organic chocolate extract (water, organic alcohol, organic cocoa bean extractives).
#4 Best Keto: Angel Bake
If you need a keto chocolate extract, look no further than Angel Bake!
This delicious chocolate extract is gluten-free, vegetarian, and will fit your keto diet perfectly! There are no synthetic or imitation flavor components, along with 0 sugar added. You’ll enjoy a completely natural chocolate extract that is just straight delicious – and it’s super well received! There are over 3000 reviews that are overwhelmingly positive, giving this extract a 4.6 out of 5 star rating – that’s the most reviews AND the highest rating on any on this list!
However, it is a little on the pricey side, coming in at $5.48 per fluid ounce – although, no other keto chocolate extract will meet your needs quite like this one!
Ingredients: Alcohol, water, and chocolate extractives.
#5 Best Gift: Nielsen-Massey
Perfect for Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays, or just appreciating your favorite baker, Nielsen-Massey chocolate extract is the perfect gift!
It’s a great chocolate extract that offers a delicious taste and amazing reviews, and it’ll add a great pop of flavor in your dishes! It also comes with a gift box – and who doesn’t love nice packaging? It adds a special touch when it comes to buying or receiving a gift, and makes the overall exchange much more fun! Nielsen-Massey has provided that, giving you a great chocolate extract in a wonderful gift box that is sure to make someone very happy!
Make someone’s day and check out Nielsen-Massey!
Ingredients: Water, Alcohol (37%), Cocoa Extract.
#6 Best Kosher: Happy Home
Happy Home chocolate extract is the perfect kosher-certified extract that will level up your dishes!
No matter the reason for wanting a kosher-certified chocolate extract, this is the one to get. It has an amazing and natural flavor, and is made in the USA. You’ll find no artificial coloring in it, and you can tell it has that small-business attention to detail – you’ll love to bake with this!
Check it out!
Ingredients: Natural Flavors, Propylene Glycol, Water, Alcohol, Salt.
#7 Honorable Mention: Vanilla Bean Kings
Vanilla Bean Kings is an awesome brand, and we want to give them a special shoutout.
Their chocolate extract is great, and is also kosher-certified, non-GMO, gluten-free, sugar free, and 100% natural! Vanilla Bean Kings consistently makes awesome products, and their chocolate extract is evidence of their dedication to providing accurate flavors without the use of artificial ingredients.
Definitely take a look at this one!
Ingredients: Water, Alcohol, Chocolate Concentrate, Vanilla Extract (Alcohol, Water, and Select Vanilla Beans).
#8 Honorable Mention: Cook’s
Another honorable mention goes to Cook’s.
We generally really like this brand, and we definitely like their chocolate extract. It’s powerful, delicious, and organic, making it another great choice if you’re specifically looking for organic ingredients.
You’ll find this stuff to meet your needs in the kitchen, and it’ll lend its great flavor to whatever you pair it with! However, it’s a little pricier than some of the options higher on the list, and it doesn’t particularly add anything special for the extra price – although, it is the cheapest organic option on this list at $4.25 per fluid ounce!
Ingredients: Organic alcohol, organic vanilla extract, organic coco, and water.
Others we reviewed
With the many chocolate extracts out there, some are bound to miss the mark.
One of these is LorAnn’s chocolate flavoring product, which has artificial flavors and a lot of artificial coloring! We at Coconut Mama don’t support artificial ingredients, especially when it’s unnecessary – just look at all the great options in the list above that are completely natural!
Another brand that didn’t make the cut is Prodisabor, as they also have artificial flavors. We don’t see why we’d need to settle for something fake when the real deal is many times better! It’s unfortunate, but we can’t recommend these two brands.
However, check out the list above – you’ll likely love all of them!
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