Full-fat cacao is the whole cacao bean, ground with none of its cocoa butter removed. Around half of the bean's weight is cocoa butter, so full-fat cacao is solid at room temperature and melts into a drink. Most cocoa powder has had most of that butter pressed out.
You'll also see it called whole bean cacao or 100% cacao. Chocolate makers call it cocoa mass or cocoa liquor. They all mean the same thing, as long as the ingredients list says cacao and nothing else.
Why is it called full-fat?
Because nothing has been taken out. Most hot chocolate starts as powder, made by pressing ground beans until most of the cocoa butter runs off. Full-fat cacao skips that step.
How much fat is in it?
Around half its weight, depending on the bean. Cocoa powder is usually somewhere between 10% and 22%. You can check any product on its nutrition panel: whole bean cacao shows close to 50g of fat per 100g.
Does the fat change the taste?
More than anything else does. Cocoa butter carries flavour and gives the drink its body, so the cup coats your mouth the way good chocolate does. Powder relies on milk and sugar to make up the difference. Full-fat cacao doesn't need either, though both work.
Is it the same as cacao butter?
No. Cacao butter is the fat on its own, pale and mild. Full-fat cacao is the whole bean, butter and solids together.
Is cacao the same as cocoa?
Both words come from the same plant. In the UK, cocoa usually means the powder in a tin and cacao is used for less processed products, but neither word is regulated. The ingredients and the fat content tell you more than the name. More in Cacao powder vs whole bean cacao.
Why does it come in pieces?
Cocoa butter is solid at room temperature and melts just below body temperature. Ground whole bean cacao is liquid while warm and sets as it cools, so it can be moulded. Ours comes in 20g pieces, one per cup.
How do you use it?
Melt one piece into 300 to 400ml of hot milk or water and whisk until smooth. Because the fat is already in it, it makes a fuller cup with water than you might expect. More in How to make drinking cacao.
Try it for yourself.
Single-origin Pure Cacao from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. 11 sticks per pack, or a Month Supply of 33.