Sorting and Cleaning the Beans

Last week we showed how we make chocolate here at Amano in terms of the grinding. This week we want to show how we roast our beans and winnow them.

The grinding of cacao nibs into chocolate tends to get all the attention. Very few people pay close attention to the roasting and winnowing. In fact many companies don’t even do their own roasting and winnowing! However it really is a crucial step in developing the flavor of chocolate. The temperature you roast at has a significant, perhaps one of the most significant, affects on the final chocolate flavor. Likewise the hard husk of the cacao bean, if not removed, will create an “off” flavor that can’t easily removed. Removing as much of the chaff as possible is crucial for maintaining the proper flavor development. To compensate for having chaff in the final product some use a heavy roast to disguise the flavor. But that destroys a lot of the subtle flavors we love to find in chocolate.

Now we’ve recently talked about our new winnower. We’ve also talked about winnowing and chaff and how we remove the husks of the cacao bean. While talking about winnowing in abstract is nice, actually seeing (and hearing) the machines working is something else entirely. I have to confess that staring at the nibs and chaff as they vibrate down the grate is nearly hypnotic to me.

Of course after all that roasting and winnowing there is a lot of chaff and dust in the room not to mention ash inside the roaster. So the hardest part is actually the cleaning up afterwards.