A process in which cocoa polyphenol concentrate is obtained comprising the steps of: a) subjecting unfermented cocoa beans to a blanching step in water at a temperature in the range from 85-100 DEG C for a time period in the range from 3 to 15 minutes to give unfermented cocoa beans with reduced polyphenol oxidase activity b) drying the unfermented cocoa beans with reduced polyphenol oxidase activity at a temperature of less than 85 DEG C to obtain dried unfermented cocoa beans with a moisture content of no more than 15% c) subjecting the dried unfermented cocoa beans to a particle size reduction step to obtain dry unfermented cocoa bean intermediate whereby at least 99 wt% of the product has a particle size less than or equal to 300 m e) extracting polyphenols from the dry unfermented cocoa bean intermediate to give a cocoa polyphenol extract and extracted solids d) concentrating the cocoa polyphenol extract to yield a cocoa polyphenol concentrate and wherein the process further includes a defatting step which is carried out prior to step d).
