I just purchased Droste's 250 gram package of cocoa. I was looking
for a Dutch Cocoa product. On the shelf there were two Droste sizes -
the 250 gram in a red cardboard box and a 125 gram red cardboard
package placed inside one of those collectible tins. Printed on the
tin container were the words "Processed with Alkali". Neither of the
cardboard boxes, though, had anything printed on them that would
indicate that the product was a Dutch Cocoa. The 125 gm. tin was
around $9.00 and the 250 gm. package without the tin container was
around $7.00. Since the cardboard packaging for both sizes had
identical wording on them, I bought the 250 gm. one. Has anyone
noticed this? I take it that all Droste cocoa's are Dutch Cocoa's.
Apparently the labelling laws in the Nertherlands aren't equal to
those in the United States. I'm surprised at that as I thought
Eurolanders were quite the sticklers for that sort of thing. I don't
read Dutch, but it is my understanding that the Dutch translation for
"Dutch Cocoa" is "Hollands Cacao". The word Hollands isn't to be
found anywhere on their label. One final observation. In my travels
in Europe and e-mail correspondence with Europeans, I've always been
impressed with their facility with the English language. The vast
majority are bi-lingual. We Americans are uni-lingual for the most
part. So I was quite dismayed to go to the English language version
of Droste's website and to see the poor Dutch to English translation.

wrote:
> I just purchased Droste's 250 gram package of cocoa. I was looking
> for a Dutch Cocoa product. On the shelf there were two Droste sizes -
> the 250 gram in a red cardboard box and a 125 gram red cardboard
> package placed inside one of those collectible tins. Printed on the
> tin container were the words "Processed with Alkali". Neither of the
> cardboard boxes, though, had anything printed on them that would
> indicate that the product was a Dutch Cocoa.

I think you can probably take it for granted that Droste dutches (that is,
processes with alkali) all of their cocoa. If in doubt, their website
probably would tell you.

On 20 Mar 2007 16:01:03 -0700, wrote:

>I just purchased Droste's 250 gram package of cocoa. I was looking
>for a Dutch Cocoa product. On the shelf there were two Droste sizes -
>the 250 gram in a red cardboard box and a 125 gram red cardboard
>package placed inside one of those collectible tins. Printed on the
>tin container were the words "Processed with Alkali". Neither of the
>cardboard boxes, though, had anything printed on them that would
>indicate that the product was a Dutch Cocoa.

I buy Droste cocoa in the 250-g red cardboard box. My local grocery
stores no longer carry it, so I buy it from various websites instead.
Sometimes I end up with the Americanized boxes (the one with the
picture of the cake and the cup of hot cocoa), and sometimes I get
European boxes (the one with the picture of the Dutch woman in the
"flying-nun-style" hat).

The "Americanized" boxes have labels in English and French, and
include the standard "Nutrition Facts" label. The other boxes have
writing in four languages (I think), and they don't have the regular
nution label.

The boxes I currently have are the Americanized ones, and under
"Ingredients", it says "cocoa powder Dutch processed with alkalai".

I don't have the other type of box here right now, but the contents
are the same in both kinds.

-- bittersweet