What does “cacao en poudre non sucré” mean in French baking?

When a French cake recipe says cacao, it almost always means cacao en poudre non sucré: pure, bitter cocoa with no sugar, often labeled “100 % cacao”. It is not the same as cacao de petit déjeuner, the sweet powder you stir into milk, which is mostly sugar. If you use the sweet one, your cake will be much too sweet. The label word to look for is non sucré: “unsweetened”.

In the clip she holds up two tins: “Si on prend le cacao en poudre non sucré… c’est 100 pour 100 cacao. Il n’y a pas de sucre.” Then the other one: “on a 23 pour 100 de cacao et le reste, en gros, c’est du sucre.” (“Take the unsweetened cocoa powder… it’s 100 % cocoa. There’s no sugar.” / “this one has 23 % cocoa and the rest is basically sugar.”) Non sucré means “unsweetened”. It is built with the prefix non- (meaning “not”), added to sucré (“sweetened”), which comes from sucre (“sugar”). So non sucré = not sweetened. You will also see it written non-sucré with a hyphen. The pure baking kind is also called cacao pur or cacao amer (“bitter cocoa”). Note for English speakers: the English word “cocoa” covers both products — the sweet drink mix and the bitter baking powder. French makes the difference clear on the label. Useful at the shop: “Je cherche du cacao non sucré pour faire un gâteau.” (“I’m looking for unsweetened cocoa to bake a cake.”) The breakfast kind — such as Nesquik — is cacao de petit déjeuner or chocolat en poudre, for stirring into milk.