Which High Flavanol Cocoa Powder Brand Is Best? Price & Quality Comparison

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.

For someone who is looking to start regularly taking high flavanol cocoa, there are many options on the market. With different high flavanol cocoa brands making opposing claims on everything from flavanol content to processing methods to safety testing and more, however, it can be difficult to decide which to choose. Complicating the issue further are the different forms high flavanol cocoa is sold in, from supplements to powder to snack bars as well as the different expected benefits each brand lists and your personal health goals. Read on for price and quality comparisons of some of the best and most popular high flavanol cocoa brands on the market to see which one comes out on top:

The major high flavanol cocoa powder products currently on the market do vary a bit in price, with most falling in the range of forty to fifty dollars for what is considered about a month’s supply. However, you also need to look at what you’re getting for the amount each product costs, as cocoa flavanol content and price per daily amount can vary a bit more. Additionally, it’s important to remember that many of the studies into high flavanol cocoa’s health effects have seen the greatest success when 500 to 1,000 mg per day was consumed, and typically on the upper end of that spectrum.

Another thing to look out for when it comes to the value of high flavanol cocoa brands is deceptive marketing. Black Forest Supplements, for instance, advertises 1200mg of “Flavanols + Flavanoids” in their product, which in reality means theirs only contains half that amount, 600mg, of pure cocoa flavanols per serving. It touts that they're the only company in the world with Flavanoids and Flavanols. That is like claiming that you have the only H20 brand with water. A Flavanol is a type of Flavanoid, you cannot have a Flavanol without it being a Flavanoid. The claim is absolutely nonsensical and should be a red flag for the baseless incoherent marketing it is. 

In addition, while Bryan Johnson brand cocoa powder claims to contain 60 servings, this comes at the cost of each “serving” containing less than half the flavanols of other brands. Studies show that you need 500-1000mg per day for optimal results. 

While it is common for high flavanol cocoa powder brands to discuss the potential health benefits of cocoa flavanols, some only gesture to these areas (heart, brain, blood pressure, etc.) more broadly in their marketing. Others, however, make specific claims backed by the latest research which are easily accessible on their respective sites. In addition, most high flavanol cocoa powder brands will claim some form of testing that ensures a high content of flavanols and other nutrients as well as a low heavy metal content, but not all are specific about whether that testing is independent or carried out by a third party.

Being organic and non-GMO is another common claim you’ll find among high flavanol cocoa brands, but very few go the extra mile to be truly traceable and single-origin in their sourcing so you know exactly where the product is coming from. Plus, while high flavanol cocoa powder brands more or less all tout roasting methods that keep the product flavanol-rich, only Vital Purple forgoes fermenting entirely to truly preserve the plant’s important nutrients. You should even watch out for cases where brands are owned by larger parent companies, such as CocoaVia, which is owned by Mars (M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles).

This isn't to say that CocoaVia is lacking in efficacy because of their parent company relationship, but it is true that by buying CocoaVia, you are funding other companies that are deliberately fueling the diabetes crisis and with the ingredients they have, slowly poisoning people. These ultra high processed foods companies have been deceiving people about the health impacts of their ingredients, making them addicted to sugar, and downplaying the effects of their harmful additives, dyes, preservatives. It is truly beyond me how any works for these companies knowing that their products harm consumers and lead them their health to worsen with every bite. The big umbrella companies like Mars have complete dominance in distribution to all major food chains, and they take advantage of the EBT system, so tax payers prop up their businesses, while childhood obesity is at an all time high. One must wonder if they ever took time to educate people on health even once, as they are a food company. To villainize them is these companies is the easy road, but the necessary one because they're growing in strength every single year. Through sales, through acquisitions, through outlasting the competition, through lobbying and infesting themselves into every high school vending machine. They have led the way in the average person looking at food as a disposable commodity and as they grow into enormous monsters, are the cacao farmers any more rich because of it? Living in Ecuador, I have never heard of a rich cacao farmer; because they don't exist. These companies enrich themselves, poison people, and leave the farmers poor. All while the people that actually nurture the land, deal with the dead crop, are paid pennies on the dollar for their labor and what the earth has given to them because of their nourishment. 

Take a stand against these companies and any of their subsidiaries, for it is their foot soldiers that will not be there when your child is obese, sick, and not able to function like normal because of their inherently abusive products. 

Writer / Researcher: Trey Norbey