How to Grind Cacao Beans | Craft Chocolate Making

After going through the previous steps in chocolate making, like roasting, cracking and winnowing, you already have cacao nibs which is the primary ingredient for making chocolate. There are a number of different methods for grinding cacao nibs. 

In olden times they would do it manually using a metate stone - a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds

And then you have the big industrial grinders used by the large chocolate makers. 

In recent years, smaller machines have been developed for chocolate making that have allowed the growth of the craft chocolate industry or the small-batch chocolate makers. 

Craft chocolate makers usually use a stone melanger or stone grinder for this process. When we were starting out and for our experiments, we use a Melanger or Chocolate Refiner. This machine is popular in India and is meant to grind spices or nuts.

So the main job of the grinding process is to reduce particle size and flavor.

Tips on grinding cacao nibs:

1. Pre-grinding

2. Warm the grinder and ingredients

3. Make sure there's no water

 

Please watch the full video down below to get in full depth about how cracking cacao beans is done.

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