Cacao nibs

White Chocolate. There is at present no standard of identity in the United States for white chocolate. Virtually all current uses of the term white chocolate do not meet the standards for chocolate, which prescribes the presence of ground cacao nibs. This restrictive requirement has acted as a practical deterrent to companies developing and marketing white chocolate-type products in the United States. When such products have been introduced and marketed in the United States, companies have had to label them with fanciful names to avoid the standardized labeling issues. In other countries where a standard of identity for white chocolate exists and where a minimum amount of cocoa butter is required by law, consumers have available to them a variety of easily recognizable products. 

Changes in Cacao Nib Composition Due to Roasting (Percent by Weight)... 

Cacao Nibs Cacao nibs are crushed bits of cacao beans—which are actually not beans at all, but seeds from the Theobroma plant. Most often, these beans are dried or roasted and then extracted to make cocoa butter for chocolate, or ground into powder to make cocoa powder. Cacao nibs are crushed cacao beans that have not been made into chocolate or cocoa powder. You can find them raw or roasted, and they resemble espresso beans in texture and crunch. They contain no added sugar, so they re bittersweet. They add great texture to cookies—I even use them as a topping for ice cream. They can be found at most specialty and health-food stores or online. Make sure you buy the finely ground variety. 

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Stir in the cacao nibs. 

Theobromine and caffeine can be extracted from cacao nibs with carbon dioxide after swelling of the nibs with water without affecting the concentration of cacao butter... 

Theobromine and caffeine can be extracted out of cacao nibs with carbon dioxide adding ethanol as cosolvent in much shorter times. Simultaneously cacao butter is extracted... 

For the tests roasted cacao nibs have been used with the following composition... 

Xanthines like theobromine and caffeine can be extracted out of (roasted) cacao nibs using carbon dioxide and a mixture of water and ethanol as entrainer. With dry CO2 the xanthines cannot be removed. 

The compositions of fermented and air-dried cacao nib, cacao shell and germ are presented in Table 21.21. 

Cacao nibs, cocoa powder, and certain other cocoa products (e.g., chocolates) are governed by standards of identity set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR 163.110-163.155). For example, cacao nibs used for cocoa manufacture are required to have no more than 1.75% cacao shell. Breakfast cocoa (or high-fat cocoa) must have at least 22% cacao fat (cocoa butter), cocoa (or medium-fat cocoa) must contain less than... 

Cocoa butter is extensively used in chocolate manufacture, where it is mixed with cocoa liquor (ground cacao nibs), sugar, milk, and other ingredients such as flavors. Dark chocolate does not contain milk. 

In live cocoa seeds, the methylxanthines are localized in polyphenolic storage cells. Bean death, which occurs 24 to 48 h after initiation of fermentation, triggers diffusion of the methylxanthines from the nib to the shell. The early studies of Humphries state that cacao cotyledons lose about 40% of their theobromine during fermentation.17 According to Knapp and Wadsworth, the loss of theobromine and caffeine becomes significant on the third day when the methylxanthines begin to diffuse into the shell.18 This migration continues until the concentration of the methylxanthines in nibs and shell are almost equal. 

Chocolate liquor is the solid or semiplastic food prepared by finely grinding the nib of the cacao bean. It is commonly called baking chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, or bitter chocolate and, in Europe, is frequently referred to as chocolate mass or cocoa paste. Chocolate liquor is essentially the starting point from which all chocolate products are produced. Table 5 lists the theobromine and caffeine content of 22 various chocolate liquor samples determined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The liquors averaged 1.22% theobromine and 0.214% caffeine.27- 28 The ratio of theobromine to caffeine ranged from 2.5 1 to 23.0 1. 

Chocolate has antioxidant properties for low-density lipoproteins and hence could prevent heart disease. Foods and beverages derived from cocoa beans have been consumed by humans since 460 a.d. Cocoa pods from the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) are harvested and the beans removed and fermented. Dried and roasted beans contain about 300 chemicals including caffeine, theobromine, and phenethylamine. Chocolate liquor is prepared by finely grinding the nib of the cocoa bean and is the basis for all chocolate products. Cocoa powder is made by removing part of the cocoabutter from the liquor. Bittersweet chocolate, sometimes called dark chocolate, contains between 15 and 60% chocolate liquor, the remainder being cocoa butter, sugar, and other additives. Milk chocolate is the predominant form of chocolate consumed in the U.S. and typically contains 10 to 12% chocolate liquor. 

In 1982 a method has been presented to remove xanthines like theobromine, theophylline and caffeine from cacao products [1] working very similar to the procedures applied to the decaf-feination of coffee and tea. The authors intend to reduce the quantity of xanthines, but like to keep the content of valuable cacao butter unchanged. For this purpose they suggest to swell the cacao material (nibs) with water to about 40 % w/w and extract the undesired components with Carbon dioxide. They claim that the concentration of theobromine is reduced, caffeine is removed completely without affecting the cacao butter. 

With some screening tests we tried to verify the findings summarised above. It turned out that none of the procedures described in the cited literature is feasible for the demand removal of the xanthines without a reduction of cacao butter (being a valuable component of the cacao mass). According to our investigations it is possible to remove caffeine from swollen nibs but it is not possible to reduce theobromine by simply using Carbon dioxide. The procedure of Li et al. [2] is not suitable because of the coextraction of cacao butter. Only with a combination of the approaches cited above the scope claimed already in the patent specification EP 61 017 [1] can be achieved ... 

Result Extraction of dry nibs with pure CO2 seems to increase the concentration of the ingredients apparently. In reality the quantity is kept unaltered but gets higher because of the loss of cacao butter (this is contrary to the results of Li and Hartland). Independently to the pre-treatment and to the composition of the co-solvent the reduction of caffeine reaches about 90 %. Theobromine is reduced remarkably only with ethanol as co-solvent. Only with the knowledge of later tests the worse reduction of theobromine at a composition of the co-solvent of 1 2 waterethanol can be understood The concentration of ethanol in CO2 becomes too small. 

Results These results may be unexpected on a first glance. One can speculate that grinding smears over the cacao butter thus preventing to some extent the diffusion of the xanthines concentrated in the soldid parts of the nibs. 

Results Increased concentrations of ethanol in CO2 accelerate the reductions of the xanthines considerably. Caffeine is removed completely. Unfortunately the loss of cacao butter is large Additional tests have shown that the reductions received in the test with a concentration of 6,84 % ethanol can be balanced with smaller concentrations of 5,26 % ethanol only in twice the time (or twofold the flow of solvent) Higher temperatures would even reduce the extraction time but the limit will be close to 90 °C because of possible damage of the nibs... 

Stark T, Bareuther S, Hofmann T (2005) Sensory-guided decomposition of roasted cocoa nibs (Theobroma cacao) and structure determination of taste-active polyphenols. J Agric Food Chem 53 5407-5418... 

The reactions occurring within the pulp during fermentation of whole cacao fruit can be distinguished from those occurring in the nibs or cotyledons. The pulp sugar is fermented by yeast to alcohol and CO2 on the first day. Lactic acid... 

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