chocolate nibs

i got some chocolate nibs off ebay and when tasting a pinch, they dont taste very much like chocolate. is this normal?

Cocoa nibs are pure chocolate solids. No cocoa butter. No sugar. They're like baking cocoa, but stronger. It tastes JUST like chocolate... but nothing like a Hershey bar, if that's what you were expecting.

If you plan on using them during the brewing process, I would recommend starting with two ounces in secondary fermentation. This will gice you a nice baseline to work from to meet you tastes.

I used 8oz in secondary and the flavor is pretty intense....

ChshreCat said:

Cocoa nibs are pure chocolate solids. No cocoa butter. No sugar. They're like baking cocoa, but stronger. It tastes JUST like chocolate... but nothing like a Hershey bar, if that's what you were expecting.

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I'm pretty sure cocoa nibs are not pure cocoa solids, it does contain cocoa butter, just not the extra cocoa butter that goes into making chocolate. Pure cocoa solids are sold as cocoa powder, it's reddish in color and is somewhat bitter. Dutch process cocoa (or dutched cocoa) is alkalized (you might see it in the store as alkalized cocoa powder) and has a milder taste and is brown in color.

Most commercially sold cocoa powders still contain a very small amount of cocoa butter, but not nearly as much as cocoa nibs.

You're right. Nibs are roasted chunks of cacoa beans. They haven't been processed to separate the cocoa bitter. I stand corrected. But they're not going to taste like what people imagine "chocolate" to taste like. They're bitter beyond dark chocolate. I love 'em!

They are tasty little nuggets.

Where do you find these??? None at the grocery store.

I got mine at a local whole/natural food market.

DubbelDach said:

Where do you find these??? None at the grocery store.

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Amazon.com has decent prices.

I got lucky, as I have a friend who makes gourmet chocolate for a living out of his kitchen. He gets really good cacao from all over the world and selected some nibs for me to use in a batch. Brewed it on Saturday and will secondary with the nibs for two weeks.