Cocoa Nibs

Desired amount of nibs were placed into our stainless steel vessel. We added a proper volume of liquid nitrogen and swiveled the vessel until the majority of LN2 evaporated. The sample was not too moistened and no nibs were frozen to the bottom of the vessel. The standard knife could be turned without problems.

Now the lid was placed on top and the vessel was placed inside the mill. The mill was programmed to comminute the sample in intervals of 5 seconds at maximum speed (10.000 rpm). The grinding sound was typical.

We checked the vessel after 10 seconds of grinding time and found only particles < 1 mm (majority < 500 µm).

The lid was closed again and we proceeded grinding until a total grinding time of 30 seconds was reached. The majority of sample was comminuted to < 300 µm or finer. Only a few larger fragments were found inside the vessel.

The temperature of the ground sample was still below 0 °C. We don’t expect that the nibs could be ground fine without a static knife and packed the ground sample. Surely somehow more of sample could be filled into the grinding vessel as well.

For an intensive cleaning, the vessel was filled with warm water and a few droplets of dish washing agent. After five seconds “grinding” with 3000 rpm, the equipment was flushed with fresh water and was dried off.