Cacao or Carob?

Can anyone let me know what the difference is? I have carob at home but it is running out and I would like to buy some more but I'm not sure which one?

Comments

  • wichtenwichten Raw Newbie

    i prefer carob to cacao. cacao has caffeine and a lot of fat in it naturally. it kinda jacks me up a bit. Its getting easier to find raw cacao in a lot of health markets, where raw carob is trickier to find. Sunfood sells raw carob cheaply if that helps. I find carob to be the better of the two simply for the lower fat content and less addictive qualities, even if the carob is toasted. Those are my two cents on it.

  • joannabananajoannabanana Raw Newbie

    they both have very distinct flavors. i like the taste of cacao better, and even though it has caffience, both of them make me jittery. i also think carob is too grainy.

  • amberablueamberablue Raw Newbie

    i love them both! i was into carob-only for a long time, but now i actually mix them together so i kinda compromised. i admit, chocolate is addicting! literally, it's an 'addictive-substance' so there's one thing that is different about them. hey, i love cocoa, but just letting you know since you asked! if you have cocoa you are probably going to want more, maybe not that day, but at some point...which is why chocolate is everywhere in this world (like vanilla too) and carob is the underdog! carob is not addicting at all. and yes, cocoa does have caffeine. they do both have thier benefits, health-wise... so i feel like they each have thier place.

    cocoa is certainly a special indulgence. the other thing that's cool about carob though, is that it's naturally sweet, so i use it just with herbal stevia powder, whereas i need something actually 'sugary' like agave or dates to handle the cocoa...and usually desire to add coconut oil to it as well. i guess it just goes along with the whole indulgence thing! if you like carob, it's probably a bit more 'conservative' for the reasons i just mentioned, if you're concerned about those kinds of things...

  • SuasoriaSuasoria Raw Newbie

    What's the difference...Carob comes from ground pods of the carob tree, aka Locust, which is an evergreen that does well in Mediterranean climates. Cacao comes from a different tree grown in tropical climates.

    As Amberablue mentioned, it is naturally sweeter than cacao so part of its reputation as a health food comes from the fact that you don't need as much sugar in a recipe if you sub carob for cacao. This is why our hippie moms tried to shove it down our throats in the 70s. (Love ya, mom.)

    Carob has different health benefits than cacao. The lack of caffeine is a plus, but the lack of theobromine could be a minus - theobromine is what gives cacao it's mood-lifting properties. It also lacks the antioxidant punch of cacao. Carob is higher in calcium...I think.

    Both are good to have on hand! Appreciate them for their uniqueness, not because one is a substitute for the other or one is tastier than the other.

  • In a raw food diet where everything you eat is healthy, cacao is magic, carob is just a flavor. This is how I look at it. Very different applications, so there's not much competition one way or the other.

  • germin8germin8 Raw Master

    If a recipe calls for cacao or carob... please note, it is NOT a one to one match. Use less carob. :o) ...probably about one fourth to one half the amount called for cacao. Just my 2 cents.

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