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How-To Guide

How to Roast Cacao Nibs

Nibs are not small beans

A nib is a cacao bean with the husk removed and the kernel broken into pieces. That sounds like a minor difference. For roasting it is a large one, and it is why bean roasting advice will burn your nibs.

Three things change:

The husk is gone. On a whole bean the shell acts as a partial barrier between the heat and the kernel. A nib has no such protection — heat reaches the material directly.

They are much smaller. Far more surface area relative to mass, so they heat far faster and respond much more quickly to a change in heat.

They are already partly roasted, usually. Most nibs are made by roasting whole beans and then cracking and winnowing them. If you bought nibs, they have probably already had a roast. Anything you do is a second application of heat, not a first.

Net effect: nibs need less heat and much less time than whole beans, and the window between "nicely toasted" and "burnt" is narrow.

Why you would roast nibs at all

Two legitimate reasons, and one common misunderstanding.

To toast raw nibs. If your nibs genuinely are unroasted, you are doing the job the bean roast would have done — developing aromatics and driving off moisture.

To refresh or push already-roasted nibs. A light second toast can lift nibs that have been sitting, or take a lightly-roasted nib somewhere darker for a specific use.

The misunderstanding: that roasting nibs is a substitute for roasting the beans properly. It is not. Roasting whole beans and then winnowing gives you the shell's protection during the roast and clean husk separation afterwards. Winnowing raw and then roasting nibs is harder on both counts — raw shell clings, and unprotected nib is easy to overcook. If you are making chocolate from whole beans, roast the beans.

Method

Whatever you roast in, the principles are the same.

  1. Go lower than you would for beans. Nibs have no shell and far more surface area. Heat that is right for whole beans is too much here.
  2. Go shorter. Minutes, not tens of minutes, especially with already-roasted nibs.
  3. Keep them moving or stir often. Small pieces sitting still develop hot spots quickly.
  4. Use your nose and stay put. Nibs go from aromatic to acrid fast, and unlike a bean roast there is no leisurely window. This is not a process to walk away from.
  5. Cool immediately. Nibs are close to half cocoa butter and carry heat; spread them out with air moving the moment they are done.

In an oven

Single layer, low, stir every couple of minutes, and check constantly toward the end. Workable for small quantities.

In a pan

Fine for a handful and genuinely controllable, since you can smell and see everything. Constant movement, low heat, and take them off before you think you need to.

In a drum

Best control and by far the best option at any volume, because the nibs tumble continuously and you can read the temperature rather than guessing. If you already have an RK Drum for beans or coffee, nibs are simply a much shorter, cooler profile.

The mistakes

  • Using a whole-bean time and temperature. The most common error, and it produces burnt nibs almost every time.
  • Roasting already-roasted nibs as though they were raw. Check what you bought before applying heat.
  • Walking away. The margin is small and there is no audible cue to call you back.
  • Leaving them in a pile to cool. They keep cooking, and at this size that happens quickly.

If you are doing this at volume

Everything above scales badly by hand. At any real quantity you want the nibs moving continuously and a temperature you can actually see — which is what a drum with a bean probe gives you. On an RK Drum the RoastPilot controller reads the temperature live and saves the curve, so a nib profile that worked once can be run again exactly.

Related: roasted vs raw nibs · how long to roast whole cacao beans

Common questions

How long do you roast cacao nibs?

Much less time than whole beans — minutes rather than tens of minutes, and less again if the nibs were already roasted before winnowing, which most bought nibs have been. Nibs have no husk to protect them and far more surface area relative to mass, so they heat fast and the window between toasted and burnt is narrow.

What temperature should I roast cacao nibs at?

Lower than you would use for whole beans. The shell that partially shields a whole bean during roasting is gone, and the pieces are small, so heat reaches the material directly and acts quickly. Whatever you would use for beans, come down — and stay with them rather than walking away.

Should I roast whole beans or roast nibs?

If you are making chocolate from whole beans, roast the beans and then crack and winnow. The shell protects the kernel during the roast and releases cleanly once dried, so you get both better protection and better winnowing. Roasting nibs is for toasting genuinely raw nibs or refreshing ones that have been sitting.

Do bought cacao nibs need roasting?

Usually not — most commercially sold nibs are made by roasting whole beans first and then cracking and winnowing, so they have already had a roast. Check before applying heat, because treating already-roasted nibs as raw is the fastest way to burn them.

Keep reading

Where the roast ends and chocolate begins

Everything above is roasting — heat, time, temperature, moisture, how a bean behaves in a turning drum. That is our trade, and we will talk about it all day.

What happens after the roast is a different craft, and not ours. For fermentation, origin selection, winnowing technique, refining, conching, tempering and recipes, go to Chocolate Alchemy — John Nanci has been the reference on craft chocolate since 2004. Their complete bean-to-bar guide, the Ask the Alchemist archive and the forum will take you further than we could, and they run an all-day drum roasting seminar worth the trip.

Get the roast right with us. Get the chocolate right with them.

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