A process for selectively extracting cocoa procyanidins from an aqueous mixture of cocoa polyphenols, by using a particular sequence of acetate solvents and/or diethyl ether solvents to extract selected desired procyanidin monomers and/or oligomers. The aqueous mixture of cocoa polyphenols is first extracted with n-butyl acetate. The acetate solvents include n-butyl acetate, ethyl acetate and methyl acetate. The diethyl ether solvents include mixtures of methyl acetate and diethyl ether in the following ratios (methyl acetate:diethyl ether): 0:100, 25:75, 75:25 (all v/v).