It is that time of year again, when the great orgy that is Valentine’s Day demands chocolate, and lots of it. But before you dive into that heart-shaped box of light and dark nuts creams and truffles, I ask you to consider, no—pity—the cocoa bean.
For thousands of years it has been abused: ground, mashed, roasted and chemically treated; bathed in syrup and beaten to a frothy foam until it becomes a cloying pretender, filled with fat, carbs and sugar—admittedly delicious. But it takes about 400 beans to make just one pound of chocolate. So perhaps instead of making this sacrifice to gooey sweetness in the name of love, we should direct our ardor at the bean itself.
In its unadulterated form the cacao bean, as it is properly called, is hailed as the new superfood, chock-full of nutrients including iron, magnesium, phosphorus, fiber, and good-for-the-heart antioxidants. Health food stores and websites tout it as the “food of the gods,” selling raw and roasted beans and nibs alongside goji berries and hemp seeds.
Recently a bag of raw organic whole cacao beans at Whole Foods whispered “Be mine” and I succumbed. This isn’t my first attempt to love chocolate in the raw. Two years ago I had bought a bag of raw nibs. (Nibs are beans either raw or roasted, which have been fermented shelled and crushed.) Although the package declared it the “power food for the modern lifestyle,” the nibs were bitter and not very chocolatey and I had no idea how to use them. So they sat on my shelf until they turned an inedible white—no power for my lifestyle.
This time around, with a fresh bag of raw Mexican beans in hand, I consulted the expert, Mr. Chocolate himself, Jacques Torres, the New York City-based maker of dark bars and cream-filled confections, and one of the first artisan chocolatiers to start from the bean to create his chocolates. Torres himself carries a handful of roasted nibs in his pocket for snacking during the day. “They are a good energy food,” he says, “that satisfy but are not filling.”
A healthy inspiration; but the bean alone, without its faithful companions sugar and fat, can be an acquired taste, admits Torres. And like the coffee bean, it has distinct and different flavors. The French Torres naturally compares the cocoa bean to wine. “A Bordeaux from one place will taste very different from another produced at a different vineyard,” he says. Similarly, each bean will have a distinct flavor based on a number of variables including the type of bean, where it is grown, how carefully and how long it ferments and how it is roasted.
There are three main types of bean: The criollo, which comprises only a tiny fraction of the world’s crop, is prized for its mildly fruity taste; The more common forastero which makes up ninety percent of production and is defined by its simple, earthy flavor; and the hybrid trinitario, a cross between criollo and forastero, ranges from spicy to earthy to fruity.
Of the three varieties, Torres prefers a highly prized criollo grown in Venezuela, as well as the very rare Mexican white bean, which he says has a floral taste with some sweetness. To make his signature bonbons, however, Torres uses an African-grown trinitario for its “calmer” taste that won’t compete with his confections’ other delicate flavors.
My recently purchased Mexican-grown raw whole beans were milder and better tasting than the bitter Peruvian-grown raw nibs I had originally bought. Neither package specified the type of bean. Neither was really snackable.
So what does Jacques Torres currently have in his pocket? Roasted Trinitario nibs from the Dominican Republic which, he says, have an earthy, floral flavor.
Raw cocoa beans and nibs are believed to contain higher levels of antioxidants and be a nutritionally healthier option than the roasted beans but Torres insists that roasted is better. “You don’t want to eat raw beans,” he says. Raw cocoa beans are not only fermented but are often dried outside in the sun where birds and insects get on them, so they get dirty and can contain bacteria. He says the roasting kills any of the potentially harmful contaminants.
Still, a representative of one company that sells raw beans and nibs, Navitas Naturals, counters that their beans are washed so as to clean them of any debris. Additionally, he says, “we regularly test the beans when they arrive to see if they are safe, and have never encountered any problems.”
For tastiness, however, roasting the bean gives it a more intense, chocolate flavor and makes for better snacking. My even more recent purchase, a bag of roasted nibs, have a deeper, richer chocolate flavor than both the raw beans and raw nibs I had bought before.
And although two tablespoons of cocoa nibs (crushed beans) have 12g of fat, 7g of which are saturated, don’t despair: in the body, most of the bean’s fat gets converted to or takes the form of a heart-healthier monounsaturated fat. But weighing in at roughly 140 calories, it’s not exactly diet food. Still, it’s not as easy to gorge on nibs as it is bonbons.
Keep in mind that there are many other ways to eat your beans. Mix nibs in trail mix with walnuts, almonds and dried cranberries for your own super superfood. Or go for a candy/nib hybrid: Sweetriot makes dark-chocolate covered cocoa nibs. And nibs and beans are great in both sweet and savory dishes. Use them in place of chopped nuts or, as Jacques Torres suggests, grind some roasted beans or nibs over fruit and soups using the fresh grind like a spice.
Next week, I’ll give you a Jacques Torres recipe for salmon and cocoa nibs!
Here are some links for buying coca nibs:
A 6-ounce pouch of roasted cocoa nibs will cost about $9 from Scharffen Berger.
An 8-ounce bag of raw beans cost roughly $10 at Whole Foods or order them from Navitas Naturals or Sunfood.
For more specialized beans from a particular country, you can go to Amano Artisan Chocolate.
