Over the past few decades, research into potential superfoods has consistently singled out high flavanol cocoa powder as one with several powerful health benefits. With strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as well as the potential to improve cognitive function and focus, cardiovascular health, blood pressure, and reduce risk of diabetes and multiple other categories of disease, taking high flavanol cocoa supplements regularly may prove a smart choice when working toward your health goals. 

Now the category is blowing up! Within the past 5 months there have been at least been 4 new brands to come onto Amazon selling high flavanol cocoa powder. However, the brands are solely on Amazon, meaning it may be hard to hold them accountable. This happens when people see a big $$ opportunity in the niche and want to exploit it without innovating the product, providing transparency, giving back to the farmers, or creating something that will be maximized for nutrient absorption. Will they be transparent with their metal and efficacy reports? 

The companies listed below are more trustable, but in general if you cannot have direct contact with someone from a company, it is a bad sign! Stay vigilant! 

Why aren't any organic? Because most high flavanol cocoa brands just use an extract combined with dutched powder. 

In the past, we’ve covered several of the top high flavanol cocoa powder brands on the market, seeing how claims on everything from flavanol content itself to processing methods to safety testing and more differ. We compared and contrasted these brands in terms of both price and general quality to determine which of the many options someone looking to start taking high flavanol cocoa should go for. Now, let’s get into more specifics, and discover exactly how these brands stack up:

The first high flavanol cocoa brand we will review is Vital Purple. The unique features of Vital Purple’s high flavanol cocoa powder make clear exactly why it’s the leading brand on the market in terms of quality. Vital Purple leads in flavanol content per serving with 900mg while also being the only major brand that claims an elevated level of anthocyanins in their product, boosting its positive health effects even further above others. In addition, Vital Purple is the only brand that forgoes both roasting and fermenting in its production entirely, always keeping its cocoa below 85℉ in order to preserve more of the flavanol content (such as Anthocyanins) than competitors.

Other benefits of Vital Purple include its rigorous heavy metal testing, making it one of the few brands that can verify low levels of lead and cadmium, and its single-origin sourcing, coming entirely from Ecuador’s Arriba Nacional. Why does that matter as a High Flavanol Cocoa Brand? Transparency is still everything because of the loop holes many companies continue to play. Vital Purple being the only entirely raw cacao on the market makes it compatible with almost any dietary needs or restrictions (vegan, keto, paleo, etc.) while also giving it one of the most unique flavor profiles of any high flavanol cocoa powder. Most of the time, you will get something light, but Vital Purple packs a punch and makes an impression because it retains it's origin flavor from the time of harvest and they use specific machines to low temperature process the powder.

With the owner living in Ecuador and overseeing everything from sourcing, processing, production and packaging, Vital Purple claims itself as the Best High Flavanol Cocoa Powder Brand on the market because of it's intensity to detail and quality. The material is regularly sourced from certified Heirloom Farms, and Philip says "it's only when you see these processes up close when you notice the areas for suppliers cutting corners. No major brand is on the ground like us working with every step of the supply chain and preserving cocoa flavanols and antioxidants like us". 

The second high flavanol cocoa brands we will review is FlavaNaturals. FlavaNaturals also leads the market in flavanol content per serving, claiming to match Vital Purple’s 900mg, but their product has other disadvantages that make Vital Purple the clear winner. Just to name a few, they do not forefront claims of heavy metal testing like other brands do, nor do they claim any specific origin for their product. In addition, their cocoa is both fermented and roasted, making the Anthocyanin content far less well preserved than in products that use better methods.

The third high flavanol cocoa brand we will review is CocoaVia. CocoaVia, owned by Mars (M&M’s, Snickers, etc.), contains less flavanols per serving than the previous two brands, with their Cardio Health line having 500mg and their Memory+ having 750mg. Keep in mind, Mars is a multinational faceless corporation that owns ultra high processed food brands. For their high flavanol cocoa powder brand, their process consists of drying and what they refer to as “gently roasting” the cocoa, but it is important to remember that any amount of roasting necessarily damages the flavanol profile versus keeping the crop in its raw state. CocoaVia is simply using an extract with dutched cocoa powder. 

CocoaVia does have its advantages as well, claiming third-party verified heavy metals testing as well as a single-origin in Indonesia, but these are still not wholly unique to their brand. Their flavor profile, however, is described as more in line with dark chocolate than some of their competitors, giving it the outward appearance of being a step up health wise. They did do the work to create some studies around cocoa flavanols, that should be credited. 

The fourth high flavanol cocoa brand we will review is Black Forest Supplements. Though Black Forest claims 1200mg of “flavanols + flavonoids” per serving of their cocoa, only half of that is the flavanol component, making theirs a product that loses out to the previous three brands in flavanol content. If you have a flavanol, you have a flavonoid since a flavanol is a type of flavonoid. The real drawbacks, however, come in the number of other markers they do not go out of their way to specify. In addition to not being single-origin, they do not detail their processing method, and their claim of heavy metal testing is only readily available through their Amazon store.

The fifth high flavanol cocoa brands we will review is Bryan Johnson's brand. Bryan Johnson high flavanol cocoa brand comes in last in terms of flavanol content with 400mg per serving, but this is not their only drawback. Like Black Forest, they do not forefront many of the markers other leading brands do such as origin and diet compatibility, and like Black Forest, their claims of third party testing can be difficult to trace. In fact, on heavy metals specifically their cocoa powder has been alleged to exceed safe limits.

They claim their cocoa is “undutched and unsweetened”, but this being the industry standard for high flavanol brands means it says little about their flavanol preservation versus others. They are, however, one of the few brands that focus on a flavor profile closer to pure cocoa rather than one that strives to simply mimic chocolate as closely as possible.

Bryan has also brought other chocolate brands to light for their flavanol and metal content, bringing awareness to the topics, and holding companies accountable which is admirable. 

This concludes our summary of prevalent high flavanol cocoa powder brands in the market. We left out Santa Barbara cacao and we will cover them in our next blog! We believe that they hold a high quality high flavanol cocoa brand and have done a good amount of research! They were an earlier brand to the category, spearheading some awareness around some micronutrients we should be paying attention to! 

At the end of the day, this all comes down to trust for the brand and Vital Purple is open to any and all questions about our sources, processing methods, metal and efficacy results. Feel free to email all questions to Phillip@theorganiccacao.com. Lastly, a warning! There is a huge wave of sellers for High Flavanol Cacao coming onto the Amazon market! Be very careful what you buy! I grew up in the natural supplement space, so it is easier for me to spot the fake brands but I can see a lot of them are not legitimate. 

Writer / Researcher: Trey Norbey