Roasting and Shelling Cocoa Beans
To bring out the chocolate flavour and colours the beans are roasted. The temperature, time and degree of moisture involved in roasting depends on the type of beans being used and the type of chocolate being made. Thus, when the chocolate is made with a different blend of beans, beans are roasted separately and mixed afterwards.
A winnowing machine is used to remove the shell from the beans to leave what are known as the cocoa nibs – peeled beans transformed into chunks.
You can buy pure cocoa nibs which are chopped into small chunks and turn up in chocolate bars. However, they are an unusual bitter taste and far from the sweetness of chocolate that one expects. This is why the Europeans found the unsweetened Aztec version of hot-chocolate so unpalatable, and were quick to add sugar and vanilla to soften the taste.
