Building a machine is very much like cooking. You are taking simple things putting them together in such a way that the result is greater than the sum of its parts.
Next, Next Video: I awaken my ancient bloodline of the divine creators of our mortal plane and use my newfound unlimited power to create cocoa beans without husks
I use an old farmer blower (used to blow husks from wheat and other types of farm products) to remove that. Tho, that's cause i already own one, blow drier on a sieve with decently large eyes should work too, i s'pose.
I have a dust cyclone in my woodshop ..it's a smaller one that attaches to my shop vacc....it looks almost exactly like part of that apparatus he showed....(and the bag on the "end" .look like it was attached to one of the smaller capacity dust extractors...
I winnow my coffee beans on a piece of window screen set on top of a box fan that's resting on two lawn chair. If I have to do it inside, I use a second fan to blow the chaff out the window. Seems like it should work for cocoa beans.
It works but is ungodly messy. When using a fan, I do it outside and it looks like I got hit by a cocoa husk hurricane. Doing it inside like he is attempting to do is a recipe for disaster without a proper winnower.
Alex, I'd recommend searching "seed cleaner" as a basis for your contraption. Basically screened trays at a slight downward angle that you can shake back and forth so the heavy nibs slowly slide down, while a fan blows the husks up and out. I'd imagine a tote bin with a hole and an adjustable fan blowing in the bottom corner, and a vacuum in the opposite top corner. Multiple passes are expected and normal. I grew up on a farm watching my dad and grandpa adjusting the fans and speed of the sieves of combine harvesters for wheat, barley, soy, etc. and the concept is identical
Seed cleaners are in fact the basis for most small scale cocoa winnowers. Instead of using a fan though, the most common technique is actually to use only a vacuum (shop vac) and pull the air through the husk/nibs as it is falling. The lighter husk gets pulled off into the vacuum leaving the nib to fall. Having the mixture bounce off obstacles on the down path helps to separate it out too. The key to the system is being able to adjust the amount of vacuum applied to the falling nib/husk mix.
There is a pretty cheap and efficient solution to winnowing, a lot of bird people do it. You see, parrots eat the seeds but leave the husks in the feeder, so a lot of the uneaten seeds go to waste when you replace their food. So people came up with a box that has two tunnels and a fan that blows the husks away in the second compartment but lightweight seeds drop to the first one. Simple but it works. You would need some plywood a computer cooler and a few nails. Try Goodling "bird seed separator machine"
The simplest method I have found for separating out two materials is putting an inlet and outlet on the lid of a bucket and putting it in line with a vacuum. The light particles continue on, but the heavy particles fall to the bottom. I have also used a thein baffle which works well when both parts are on the lighter side (sawdust for example), and they are much easier to make than a cyclone. Always fun to see what you are trying out.
You could use dry panning techniques for extracting the husks, the same technique used to separate gold from sand and dirt, u could build a machine for doing that
How about pvc pipe with hopper that shakes the mixture slowly toward the downward chute and vacuum line from above? The vacuum catches the husks, catch tray below for nibs
Alex~I'm deeply impressed! Video posted 3 minutes ago. 302 views and 55 likes! You are indeed a lucky man (the hard work paying off kind of "lucky") and we, your fans are so grateful for you. Your hard work and dedication is recognized and revered. Thank you. Jenn 💖 a huge fan in Canada 🍁
Hey Alex just wondering why can't you straighten it with water the heavier more dense seeds will just float to the bottom and the husk will stay on top then just scoop the husk with a spoon or small strainer
It's easy.. first you have to measure the resistance of the husks and nibs. Then you divide those values by their weight in relation to the humidity. Then you put everything in a stainless steel bowl and connect it to a flux capacitor, that you configurated with the calculated values. It's just a bit hard to get the plutonium for the flux capacitor.. the rest should be easy-peasy
This Old Tony could likely build something that would do this. And it would be another very interesting collaboration. But you would have to do the initial design, of course. Great stuff, Alex, and thumbs up!
Hey Alex! Try to use a metal pan ( "comal" in México ) to "almost" burn the shell of the beans, that way you can pull it out with your fingers, later you can bake the cocoa in the oven! I used this method to make traditional chocolate in México.
Hi Alex I was recently rewatching some of your old videos and stumbled upon the " 5 courses 10$ menu ! Trader Joe's challenge " In this video u use a technique to separate squash seeds from the pulp which might be a solution to your problem: putting the whole thing in water The nibs , being more dense and heavy, will sink to the bottom and the husk will float on the suface
It won't work on these type of material Cocoa, like coffee bean and tea leaf Will release some of their property to water What's the point of buying super premium beans if you going to dilute it at the end
Alex there's a cyclone dust collector that hooks up to a shop vac. Us woodworkers use it to separate the light sawdust from the heavier wood chips. I would bet that it could work to winnow your cocao beans. The one I saw was oneida cyclones I think
Helpful tip for making the text like the "subtitles" around the 1:50 mark is to have white text with a black outline. that contrast makes it so it can be read over ANY background.
Hi Alex! Although it's a little late for this advice - we do something like this in India a lot when trying to separate the peanut husk/skin from the peanuts themselves. What works in households is that you can place this in a big tray and kind of jerk it upwards in order to get all the particles to rise in the air. While this is happening, blow on it. It works perfectly!
You can get those cyclone dust collection/separator funnels from hardware stores. They are usually mounted over a trash bin and you attach a vacuum cleaner hose and machine up to them. All the heavy stuff falls into the trash bin instead of going up the vacuum cleaner. They are good because you don't have to change vacuum cleaner bags as often when cleaning up a big mess of mostly larger wood chips etc in the workshop. Only the small dirt makes it to the vacuum bag.
Great video. Looking forward to your efforts at winnowing. I love trying new things and sometimes my efforts are a bust. It's good to see that others try/fail. Keep up the good work.
A centrifugal cyclone separator like those used in some shop vacs might be able to separate the heavy beans from the light husk, but I would try a simple fan or a leaf blower first first.
I'm thinking a hoover that uses a nozzle like the Henry hoovers and create a dyi end piece that widens like a reverse hopper, this should lower the suction power so it pulls up the husks and leaves the nibs, clean and quick, if you can work out the size you would need. a cloth might be worth adding to the end so it sucks up the husks and gets stuck on the cloth so you know you wont accidentally pull up any of the nibs
I think you could build simple cyclone and connect it to the Y shape tube, where through long side you will throw (i do not know proper word) mix, and throuh the branch you must connect cyclone with vacuum. Light parts should fall down, while light will be sucked in cyclone. I use this method for separating cranberry and blueberry from the leaves
Assuming the Nub and husk have different densities could you place them in a bucket/bowl/deep container and use vibration to cause them to separate into layers?
Alex! Look up the Brazil Nut effect. If you have a mixture of particals of differing size's when vibrated the larger particals float to the top... Just as a quick experiment you could fill a tall glass with the husk nib mixture abd place it on top of your sander!
Perhaps a tube with a funnel at the top with another tube connected to a vacuum cleaner coming in at an angle could be used to separate the husks. We have such contraptions for separating leaves from blueberries here in Sweden.
It might sound stupid... but would a gold pan work (no water)? Can you agitate it enough in a gold pan to separate the heavy from the light? Like how codyslab separated lead bullets from dirt by dry panning.
I have a recommendation. You know how cereal tends to separate when you shake it? How about putting the beans it all in a large container and attaching a motor with an unbalanced counterweight (aka your drill) and running it for a while (the vibration will shake the container and separate the denser parts from the lighter parts). Greetings from Germany!
Alex look at how they separate gold flakes from sand. The nibs may be heavier than the husk and fall the the bottom through a series of movements or air dusplacements. Or perhaps even water :)
There is a youtube channel by Aaron Sylvester in Grenada where they go through the chocolate making process from growing beans to making chocolate. They have an elaborate DIY winnowing machine made of pvc pipe and a vacuum but the video shows the principles of how the machine functions.
For the separation, I did something similar for a summer job in a crop research lab with an air separator. You need a clear plastic pipe, maybe around 4 inches in diameter and 4 feet long, a fabric bag, some wood for supports, a source of air like a shopvac, and some random other bits. Cut off three sections of pipe, maybe around 3-4 inches long each. Take one and add a screen with epoxy to the bottom and add a handle to the side, we will call this the cup. Take another section and attach a thin metal disk on a pivot to act as a valve. Stack them together so you have the section with the valve at the bottom, then the unmodified section (you want the metal valve to be between the two pipes, not at the very bottom of the stack), then the cup and the rest of the pipe. Attach all except the cup to a piece of wood so that you can stand it up vertically and slide the cup in and out of it's slot. Cut a slot into the wood to allow the valve to open, or put the pivot on the front with a handle to operate it. Attach the output of a shopvac to the bottom and some sort of catch bag on the top that will stop the shells but let the air out. Take your mix of nibs and shells and filter out the dust just to make the process cleaner. Take the cup from the pipe and put some of the mix into it. The exact amount will depend on the setup but you will figure out what works best fairly quickly. Too much and it will clog the pipe and everything will blow out the top, too little and it will take you forever. Close the valve and slide the cup with the mix to the opening to complete the pipe. Turn on the shopvac and slowly open the valve to control the amount of air passing through the pipe. You want enough air going through that the shells get blown out the top but the nibs stay inside. This is why the pipe is clear, so that you can see it happening. When it is as clean as you can get it, close the valve, wait for the nibs to settle down, and take out the cup. Dump the cup into a bowl and repeat until everything is cleaned.
This reminds me of how I take the husk off my peanuts, crush them up in a bag, pour into bottle with some vent flaps in the bottom for air flow and to move the nuts around, then put a vacuum on the top off the bottle and watch all the light flakes vanish
I saw several videos with a lower roasting temp. When done it was easy to just peel the husks like shelling peanuts. Is it possible the roasting point was too high?
ok so, Dyson vacuums use a series of cones to separate particle sizes (they got the idea from the filtration methods that have been used for decades in mines). Perhaps something like that could work for winnowing? Either that or the principles for chromatography, where you basically send particles around a curve, and the heavier bits fly to the outside of the curve. Either way lol, I'm really enjoying this chocolate series, and I can't wait to see what you come up with! For me, I was intrigued by the wet grinding of the chocolate, so I would like to see the difference between wet ground raw chocolate and wet ground roasted chocolate.
Salut Alex! If you need something with a little more airflow for that contraption that you are about to build, consider (If you haven't yet) using the hoover. If it's the same Kärcher as mine you can switch the hose to the back and make it blow air instead ...
Forgive my ignorance Alex but could you not vibrate it to make the husk rise to the top? It would be possible then to remove the majority without a more complex machine than a deep container and your orbital sander?
Alex, use a filter and pass the cocoa nibs and husk mixture through. Then as they fall, use a hair dryer to blow out the lighted husk pieces. Rinse and repeat. It maybe more time consuming but it could help it you don't have the industrial equipment.
If they have different densities you could separate them in a water bath. Preferably, a cold water bath so you don't extract any flavors from the nibs. I don't know a thing about chocolate making, just giving ideas.
NO!! Water is the absolute enemy when it comes to chocolate making. The nib WILL absorb water almost instantly and require an additional step to dry at a minimum. You will still end up with a tea though as some flavors will be extracted no matter what. Problem is I am pretty sure the nib floats too.
Sounds like you're making a fluidized bed! Check the falling velocity of the husk and the nib, that is, the velocity of upward air needed for the particle to be suspended in the air chute. Control the air such that it can blow the husks up and out, but the heavier nibs remain. Good luck and much love to you!!!
Alex, just use a hand han or a piece of paper to fan the top of the nib/husk mixture. Shake the pan and the lighter husks will rise to the top and get blown off by the fan.
i would put it in a jar and gently shake the jar the husk and the nib should organize by density overtime. then you can scoop the husk off the top. its not perfect but it should work decently
You own a vacuum cleaner, so you could easily use that to create airflow across a box, thereby cleaning the husk mess and winnowing at the same time. Using a cylinder and an offset suction could create a vortex which should help.
Use gravity+wind resistance to shoot nibs+husks across row of buckets. Central buckets are pass-through, nearer buckets should be nibs (higher mass/wind resistance), further blown pieces should be husks. The pass-through could contain a further light chopping before re-processing. Or... Use a kids popcorn maker without the heat on! ☺️
What happens if you put the whole thing in the water? Won't the husks float on the surface while the nibs drop down? Does it impact the flavor too much after drying out the nibs?
6 inch wide pipe, shopvac attached at the top. Cut a hole in the side of the pipe and attach a hopper for your cocoa, mount the pipe vertically somehow, leave the bottom completely open, place a collecting tray down there to catch the nibs. For more control, get a valve normally used for DIY central vac installations that use a shop vac as the power source (Can find those at your hardware store, ask an employee) so that you can adjust the amount of air the vacuum pulls through the apparatus. More airflow = heavier bits sucked into the shop vac More tube height = better ability to separate things that weigh very similar amounts More tube width = more capacity, but you will require exponentially more airflow as you go wider. I think a 6 inch pipe should be able to handle all the air a shop vac can move at a flow rate that won't suck up your nibs.
What if you take a shop vacuum and a large container with a screen to divide it into top and bottom use the exhaust from the vacuum to blow air in under the nibs and the suction above to catch the husks
So... What about putting cheese cloth or other cloth over the end of your shop vac. Then lightly going over it sucking the husk into the cloth. Separate any nibs that come in and repeat.
Just heard your interview on Milk Street radio NPR. I heard him introduce a French guy named Alex, and had a feeling it was you, always a welcome voice.
Maybe buy a fan and on a low setting slowly drop the mix in front of the fan. That might work. Maybe put some sort of screen up to catch the husks. That would be pretty cheap.
If there is a significant difference in density, perhaps you can pour everything in a large container of water and then separating out the less dense fraction from the top. Either that or cyclone/centrifugation should also be able to help. Although that could also be a concern if you are concerned with using water as a medium because of it potentially affecting your chocolate.
Cyclonic separation is great but getting the setup right to discriminate slightly different densities from air would be a long job. Maybe try something cruder like a sieve with a handful of crushed beans and a funnel snugly inserted on top. The vacuum cleaner could be attached to the funnel to create airflow as long as some air bleed holes were made on the depression side to fine tune the flow through the sieve.
I tried to build a winnowing machine out of a 5 gallon bucket and a bunch of PVC. Ended up purchasing a pre-fabricated winnower that I didn't have the tools to recreate. Before that, I was blowing the husks off my 2nd story apartment balcony and onto the sidewalk in Oakland. The sidewalk would stay crunchy for weeks.
Why can't you shake separate the nibs from the husk? You can put the mix into a jar and shake gently until the heavier particles separate from the lighter ones
So with differences in density before you empty the bag you should be able to shake it and get a majority of the husk to rise to the surface. it's like how lucky charms never has any marshmallows at the bottom so you need to flip the bag upside down before opening it. this will help you separate out like 50% and most of the big pieces then use a hair drier as the source of wind and control the amount by the distance from the end of the tube or a blast gate that drops down like in dust collectors, you can also try making multiple passes in the machine because you are going to be using such a low volume of beans.
A suggestion: Put a double handful of the "grind" in a kitchen strainer. Hold a vacuum cleaner above the strainer and agitate up and down also side to side. Vacuum up the dust from above holding the strainer over a tray or large bowl to catch small pieces of the roasted chocolate.
first thought... im curious how close it would be..... chip separator, the type used in woodworking shops conncted to a vacuum. the heavier parts nibs will fall to the bottom of the container, and the lighter parts husks will suck out into the vacuum.... but then again.... im probably very wrong
here in Venezuela our cocoa beans are very famous and the tecnique of the rural areas is to let it dry on the floor by the sun. that should make a diference
if the nib bits sink in water but the husk floats, you might be able to separate them that way. It would be easy to test as well, if you are willing to possibly sacrifice a handful of your nib/husk mix by dropping it in a pan of water (with enough depth that you can skim off whichever floats)
It's not glamorous, but a box fan on low works well for winnowing tricky grains. I've separated amaranth in a few passes using a such a fan, desire the grain and chaff landing only a few inches apart over a drop of 20 inches.
How about something simple... like a device similar to an air popcorn popper? Blow air upwards through the mixture, and based on the length of the vertical pipe and velocity of the airflow, you should be able to separate out the husks from the nibs.
The tangy notes you are getting in the raw beans is vinegar. The bacteria responsible for the fermentation of the cacao beans creates vinegar as a by-product. Your crumbling of the bean when trying to peel the beans is largely because you aren't being very delicate. We can peel ours as a whole bean about 80-90% of the time. It is however VERY slow. Hand peeling takes hours to get a reasonable amount ready to process. A winnower is definitely the way to go. Chocolate Alchemy has some good DIY plans for building a winnower. Using the airflow to blow out the husk is effective but yes it is VERY messy!
Alex just looks for opportunities to build some sort of machine. ♥️
Building a machine is very much like cooking. You are taking simple things putting them together in such a way that the result is greater than the sum of its parts.
Next video: I move to Ecuador and grow my own kakao
Next, Next Video: I awaken my ancient bloodline of the divine creators of our mortal plane and use my newfound unlimited power to create cocoa beans without husks
@@infamoussky22 I think he would have to be in a XianXia novel for that.
and the next video: I build an army and overthrow the government, become President for six terms and establish a chocolate republic.
@@infamoussky22 lnmtl
Best cacao in the world 🌍🇪🇨
So he told you to use a rolling pin to crush the husks, but not how to separate. 10/10 advice.
Step 1: Put the roasted beans in a bag.
Step 2: Crush the roasted beans with a rolling pin.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!
I use an old farmer blower (used to blow husks from wheat and other types of farm products) to remove that. Tho, that's cause i already own one, blow drier on a sieve with decently large eyes should work too, i s'pose.
toss it it behind a large fan
If Alex has to be told everything, he wouldn't have the joy of discovery. There where would the channel be?
Oh no he did ! In fact the second method comes from him 😃
Look at cyclones of woodworkers. That might help separae light matrial fom heavy ones. And it can be contained.
Actually, this was what I was thinking too when I saw the UA-cam video Alex was watching.
I have a dust cyclone in my woodshop ..it's a smaller one that attaches to my shop vacc....it looks almost exactly like part of that apparatus he showed....(and the bag on the "end" .look like it was attached to one of the smaller capacity dust extractors...
Ha, you beat me to it...same thought.
A cyclone is also utilised in coffee roasting to help remove chaff/husk from the roasted bean 👌🏼
@@andrewkroussoratsky7737 That only happens if the husk wasn't removed in processing the green beans.
I need to be told to "spread it like butter." What happened to your catch phrase? Great videos, as always!! Cheers.
It faded away with his name.
Very true - WHERE IS IT? WE'RE ALL WAITING FOR THE HOLLY SENTENCE! ;)
I winnow my coffee beans on a piece of window screen set on top of a box fan that's resting on two lawn chair. If I have to do it inside, I use a second fan to blow the chaff out the window. Seems like it should work for cocoa beans.
It works but is ungodly messy. When using a fan, I do it outside and it looks like I got hit by a cocoa husk hurricane. Doing it inside like he is attempting to do is a recipe for disaster without a proper winnower.
*hides bag under the jacket*
*walks suspiciously *
SO I'VE GOT THE BEANS
Alex, I'd recommend searching "seed cleaner" as a basis for your contraption. Basically screened trays at a slight downward angle that you can shake back and forth so the heavy nibs slowly slide down, while a fan blows the husks up and out. I'd imagine a tote bin with a hole and an adjustable fan blowing in the bottom corner, and a vacuum in the opposite top corner. Multiple passes are expected and normal.
I grew up on a farm watching my dad and grandpa adjusting the fans and speed of the sieves of combine harvesters for wheat, barley, soy, etc. and the concept is identical
Seed cleaners are in fact the basis for most small scale cocoa winnowers. Instead of using a fan though, the most common technique is actually to use only a vacuum (shop vac) and pull the air through the husk/nibs as it is falling. The lighter husk gets pulled off into the vacuum leaving the nib to fall. Having the mixture bounce off obstacles on the down path helps to separate it out too. The key to the system is being able to adjust the amount of vacuum applied to the falling nib/husk mix.
There is a pretty cheap and efficient solution to winnowing, a lot of bird people do it. You see, parrots eat the seeds but leave the husks in the feeder, so a lot of the uneaten seeds go to waste when you replace their food. So people came up with a box that has two tunnels and a fan that blows the husks away in the second compartment but lightweight seeds drop to the first one. Simple but it works. You would need some plywood a computer cooler and a few nails. Try Goodling "bird seed separator machine"
Thanks for the link 🙂
Really looking forward to seeing your winnowing contraption in the future 😄
The simplest method I have found for separating out two materials is putting an inlet and outlet on the lid of a bucket and putting it in line with a vacuum. The light particles continue on, but the heavy particles fall to the bottom. I have also used a thein baffle which works well when both parts are on the lighter side (sawdust for example), and they are much easier to make than a cyclone.
Always fun to see what you are trying out.
You could use dry panning techniques for extracting the husks, the same technique used to separate gold from sand and dirt, u could build a machine for doing that
You should measure the real temperature of your oven. You will see huge jumps due to the incredibly primitive hysteresis regulation.
My oven at home is Horrible with this.
I love that you share the adventure involved in the process of making food. Thank you for being so entertaining and informative.
How about pvc pipe with hopper that shakes the mixture slowly toward the downward chute and vacuum line from above? The vacuum catches the husks, catch tray below for nibs
Alex~I'm deeply impressed!
Video posted 3 minutes ago. 302 views and 55 likes!
You are indeed a lucky man (the hard work paying off kind of "lucky") and we, your fans are so grateful for you. Your hard work and dedication is recognized and revered. Thank you.
Jenn 💖 a huge fan in Canada 🍁
Ignores alarm to wake up. Gets notification for a Alex video. Je suis réveillé! Je suis debout!
Hey Alex just wondering why can't you straighten it with water the heavier more dense seeds will just float to the bottom and the husk will stay on top then just scoop the husk with a spoon or small strainer
How about instead of wind using static electricity? Instead of pushing away you'd be pulling the husks. Less mess.
Daniel F. Lol, good idea. Dunno how efficient that would be (?)
It's easy.. first you have to measure the resistance of the husks and nibs. Then you divide those values by their weight in relation to the humidity. Then you put everything in a stainless steel bowl and connect it to a flux capacitor, that you configurated with the calculated values. It's just a bit hard to get the plutonium for the flux capacitor.. the rest should be easy-peasy
Or just but some chocolate seems the easiest option
This Old Tony could likely build something that would do this. And it would be another very interesting collaboration. But you would have to do the initial design, of course. Great stuff, Alex, and thumbs up!
Hey Alex! Try to use a metal pan ( "comal" in México ) to "almost" burn the shell of the beans, that way you can pull it out with your fingers, later you can bake the cocoa in the oven!
I used this method to make traditional chocolate in México.
Hi Alex
I was recently rewatching some of your old videos and stumbled upon the " 5 courses 10$ menu ! Trader Joe's challenge "
In this video u use a technique to separate squash seeds from the pulp which might be a solution to your problem: putting the whole thing in water
The nibs , being more dense and heavy, will sink to the bottom and the husk will float on the suface
It won't work on these type of material
Cocoa, like coffee bean and tea leaf
Will release some of their property to water
What's the point of buying super premium beans if you going to dilute it at the end
With your subtitles could you put a black stroke around the text? White text on a light reflective table is hard to read.
fluffy i Second that! Subtitles need to improve
@@HappyFluegel Alternatively, black text with a white border also works well
@@spinafire I'm an animal, I just go for yellow or green. you can drag youtube links into km player and change the subtitle style.
Alex there's a cyclone dust collector that hooks up to a shop vac. Us woodworkers use it to separate the light sawdust from the heavier wood chips. I would bet that it could work to winnow your cocao beans. The one I saw was oneida cyclones I think
6:55 oh my gosh I laughed so hard. Did NOT expect that!!
Helpful tip for making the text like the "subtitles" around the 1:50 mark is to have white text with a black outline. that contrast makes it so it can be read over ANY background.
I swear, this channel is half culinary, half MacGyvered engineering, and all French.
I love it.
Hi Alex! Although it's a little late for this advice - we do something like this in India a lot when trying to separate the peanut husk/skin from the peanuts themselves. What works in households is that you can place this in a big tray and kind of jerk it upwards in order to get all the particles to rise in the air. While this is happening, blow on it. It works perfectly!
You can get those cyclone dust collection/separator funnels from hardware stores. They are usually mounted over a trash bin and you attach a vacuum cleaner hose and machine up to them. All the heavy stuff falls into the trash bin instead of going up the vacuum cleaner. They are good because you don't have to change vacuum cleaner bags as often when cleaning up a big mess of mostly larger wood chips etc in the workshop. Only the small dirt makes it to the vacuum bag.
Great video. Looking forward to your efforts at winnowing. I love trying new things and sometimes my efforts are a bust. It's good to see that others try/fail. Keep up the good work.
Hi Alex, thanks for your video. I really enjoying all. Let me know when you have time to come to Bali. To find the chocolate pod. 👍😁
A centrifugal cyclone separator like those used in some shop vacs might be able to separate the heavy beans from the light husk, but I would try a simple fan or a leaf blower first first.
I'm thinking a hoover that uses a nozzle like the Henry hoovers and create a dyi end piece that widens like a reverse hopper, this should lower the suction power so it pulls up the husks and leaves the nibs, clean and quick, if you can work out the size you would need. a cloth might be worth adding to the end so it sucks up the husks and gets stuck on the cloth so you know you wont accidentally pull up any of the nibs
I think you could build simple cyclone and connect it to the Y shape tube, where through long side you will throw (i do not know proper word) mix, and throuh the branch you must connect cyclone with vacuum. Light parts should fall down, while light will be sucked in cyclone. I use this method for separating cranberry and blueberry from the leaves
Assuming the Nub and husk have different densities could you place them in a bucket/bowl/deep container and use vibration to cause them to separate into layers?
Alex! Look up the Brazil Nut effect.
If you have a mixture of particals of differing size's when vibrated the larger particals float to the top... Just as a quick experiment you could fill a tall glass with the husk nib mixture abd place it on top of your sander!
Perhaps a tube with a funnel at the top with another tube connected to a vacuum cleaner coming in at an angle could be used to separate the husks. We have such contraptions for separating leaves from blueberries here in Sweden.
It might sound stupid... but would a gold pan work (no water)? Can you agitate it enough in a gold pan to separate the heavy from the light?
Like how codyslab separated lead bullets from dirt by dry panning.
I have a recommendation. You know how cereal tends to separate when you shake it?
How about putting the beans it all in a large container and attaching a motor with an unbalanced counterweight (aka your drill) and running it for a while (the vibration will shake the container and separate the denser parts from the lighter parts).
Greetings from Germany!
Wouldn't the husk float in water? Or a heavier liquid? Like water with salt or some sort of solute?
Alex look at how they separate gold flakes from sand. The nibs may be heavier than the husk and fall the the bottom through a series of movements or air dusplacements. Or perhaps even water :)
There is a youtube channel by Aaron Sylvester in Grenada where they go through the chocolate making process from growing beans to making chocolate. They have an elaborate DIY winnowing machine made of pvc pipe and a vacuum but the video shows the principles of how the machine functions.
What about using a popcorn popper? That is what I use for roasting coffee at home. Helps sort the bean from the chaff.
Great learning and teaching journey! Well done
Check out the chaff collection systems on home coffee makers like the freshroast sr-500. I bet it works perfectly.
For the separation, I did something similar for a summer job in a crop research lab with an air separator. You need a clear plastic pipe, maybe around 4 inches in diameter and 4 feet long, a fabric bag, some wood for supports, a source of air like a shopvac, and some random other bits.
Cut off three sections of pipe, maybe around 3-4 inches long each. Take one and add a screen with epoxy to the bottom and add a handle to the side, we will call this the cup. Take another section and attach a thin metal disk on a pivot to act as a valve. Stack them together so you have the section with the valve at the bottom, then the unmodified section (you want the metal valve to be between the two pipes, not at the very bottom of the stack), then the cup and the rest of the pipe. Attach all except the cup to a piece of wood so that you can stand it up vertically and slide the cup in and out of it's slot. Cut a slot into the wood to allow the valve to open, or put the pivot on the front with a handle to operate it. Attach the output of a shopvac to the bottom and some sort of catch bag on the top that will stop the shells but let the air out.
Take your mix of nibs and shells and filter out the dust just to make the process cleaner. Take the cup from the pipe and put some of the mix into it. The exact amount will depend on the setup but you will figure out what works best fairly quickly. Too much and it will clog the pipe and everything will blow out the top, too little and it will take you forever. Close the valve and slide the cup with the mix to the opening to complete the pipe. Turn on the shopvac and slowly open the valve to control the amount of air passing through the pipe. You want enough air going through that the shells get blown out the top but the nibs stay inside. This is why the pipe is clear, so that you can see it happening. When it is as clean as you can get it, close the valve, wait for the nibs to settle down, and take out the cup. Dump the cup into a bowl and repeat until everything is cleaned.
Get one of those air popcorn machines, disable the heating element, then use it to blow out the husks into a bowl.
Some air coffee roasters can blow air without heat.
This reminds me of how I take the husk off my peanuts, crush them up in a bag, pour into bottle with some vent flaps in the bottom for air flow and to move the nuts around, then put a vacuum on the top off the bottle and watch all the light flakes vanish
I've never done it with chocolate, but if you fill a jar or a bucket with everything and give it a subtle shake, the husk should rise to the top
I saw several videos with a lower roasting temp. When done it was easy to just peel the husks like shelling peanuts. Is it possible the roasting point was too high?
cant you separate it by putting them in a bottle and then shake it since bigger part goes down and smaller pieces goes up?
2:04 "Got the beans."
ok so, Dyson vacuums use a series of cones to separate particle sizes (they got the idea from the filtration methods that have been used for decades in mines). Perhaps something like that could work for winnowing? Either that or the principles for chromatography, where you basically send particles around a curve, and the heavier bits fly to the outside of the curve.
Either way lol, I'm really enjoying this chocolate series, and I can't wait to see what you come up with! For me, I was intrigued by the wet grinding of the chocolate, so I would like to see the difference between wet ground raw chocolate and wet ground roasted chocolate.
Very interesting thought 👍
Salut Alex! If you need something with a little more airflow for that contraption that you are about to build, consider (If you haven't yet) using the hoover. If it's the same Kärcher as mine you can switch the hose to the back and make it blow air instead ...
Forgive my ignorance Alex but could you not vibrate it to make the husk rise to the top? It would be possible then to remove the majority without a more complex machine than a deep container and your orbital sander?
I actually love your UA-cam channel
Alex, use a filter and pass the cocoa nibs and husk mixture through. Then as they fall, use a hair dryer to blow out the lighted husk pieces. Rinse and repeat. It maybe more time consuming but it could help it you don't have the industrial equipment.
If they have different densities you could separate them in a water bath. Preferably, a cold water bath so you don't extract any flavors from the nibs.
I don't know a thing about chocolate making, just giving ideas.
NO!! Water is the absolute enemy when it comes to chocolate making. The nib WILL absorb water almost instantly and require an additional step to dry at a minimum. You will still end up with a tea though as some flavors will be extracted no matter what. Problem is I am pretty sure the nib floats too.
I would've tried to put them in a tall and narrow glass/container/jar and vibrante it.
Just like with cereals/nuts they should separate.
Sounds like you're making a fluidized bed! Check the falling velocity of the husk and the nib, that is, the velocity of upward air needed for the particle to be suspended in the air chute. Control the air such that it can blow the husks up and out, but the heavier nibs remain. Good luck and much love to you!!!
i wonder if a cyclone and vacuum would work for separation, kind of like a wood dust collection system
Alex, just use a hand han or a piece of paper to fan the top of the nib/husk mixture. Shake the pan and the lighter husks will rise to the top and get blown off by the fan.
I'm still a the beginning but isn't 180-150°C too much hot for a "gentle" roasting ? i'm roasting my cocoa beans at 110-120 and it work pretty well
i would put it in a jar and gently shake the jar the husk and the nib should organize by density overtime. then you can scoop the husk off the top. its not perfect but it should work decently
You own a vacuum cleaner, so you could easily use that to create airflow across a box, thereby cleaning the husk mess and winnowing at the same time. Using a cylinder and an offset suction could create a vortex which should help.
1:50 close your eyes. Just hear this weird mixtures of sound coming to you 😂
Could you use water to separate them if the husks float? Or do the cocoa nibs also float?
Use gravity+wind resistance to shoot nibs+husks across row of buckets. Central buckets are pass-through, nearer buckets should be nibs (higher mass/wind resistance), further blown pieces should be husks. The pass-through could contain a further light chopping before re-processing. Or... Use a kids popcorn maker without the heat on! ☺️
What happens if you put the whole thing in the water? Won't the husks float on the surface while the nibs drop down? Does it impact the flavor too much after drying out the nibs?
6 inch wide pipe, shopvac attached at the top. Cut a hole in the side of the pipe and attach a hopper for your cocoa, mount the pipe vertically somehow, leave the bottom completely open, place a collecting tray down there to catch the nibs. For more control, get a valve normally used for DIY central vac installations that use a shop vac as the power source (Can find those at your hardware store, ask an employee) so that you can adjust the amount of air the vacuum pulls through the apparatus.
More airflow = heavier bits sucked into the shop vac
More tube height = better ability to separate things that weigh very similar amounts
More tube width = more capacity, but you will require exponentially more airflow as you go wider. I think a 6 inch pipe should be able to handle all the air a shop vac can move at a flow rate that won't suck up your nibs.
Si les deux ont des densités différentes, peut-etre les mettres dans l'eau ? et récupérer ce qui reste en surface ?
Don't know if this would help but what about an air powered popcorn machine? All you would have to do it remove the heating element and it might work.
Alex, you can try to use more of a gold panning method since the nibs are much dencer then the husks.
Great series, can't wait for the next video.
What if you take a shop vacuum and a large container with a screen to divide it into top and bottom use the exhaust from the vacuum to blow air in under the nibs and the suction above to catch the husks
So... What about putting cheese cloth or other cloth over the end of your shop vac. Then lightly going over it sucking the husk into the cloth. Separate any nibs that come in and repeat.
This may sound really dumb. But could you put them on a dry towel and lift one end and the nibs will roll where as the husks stick to the towel?
Just heard your interview on Milk Street radio NPR. I heard him introduce a French guy named Alex, and had a feeling it was you, always a welcome voice.
Alex bro when you saw that guy with the machine separating nibs you said hmhmhmm i laughed so much. You knew you were screwed for a second.
Alex, do you know how to make the chocolate straight from the fruit because I just brought a whole cocoa bean back to my country so I am curious...
Maybe buy a fan and on a low setting slowly drop the mix in front of the fan. That might work. Maybe put some sort of screen up to catch the husks. That would be pretty cheap.
If there is a significant difference in density, perhaps you can pour everything in a large container of water and then separating out the less dense fraction from the top. Either that or cyclone/centrifugation should also be able to help. Although that could also be a concern if you are concerned with using water as a medium because of it potentially affecting your chocolate.
If the next episode was a movie, I would title it:
"Cocoa Nibs: The Winnowing"
"This time it's -personal- automated"
Cyclonic separation is great but getting the setup right to discriminate slightly different densities from air would be a long job. Maybe try something cruder like a sieve with a handful of crushed beans and a funnel snugly inserted on top. The vacuum cleaner could be attached to the funnel to create airflow as long as some air bleed holes were made on the depression side to fine tune the flow through the sieve.
I tried to build a winnowing machine out of a 5 gallon bucket and a bunch of PVC. Ended up purchasing a pre-fabricated winnower that I didn't have the tools to recreate.
Before that, I was blowing the husks off my 2nd story apartment balcony and onto the sidewalk in Oakland. The sidewalk would stay crunchy for weeks.
Why can't you shake separate the nibs from the husk? You can put the mix into a jar and shake gently until the heavier particles separate from the lighter ones
So with differences in density before you empty the bag you should be able to shake it and get a majority of the husk to rise to the surface. it's like how lucky charms never has any marshmallows at the bottom so you need to flip the bag upside down before opening it. this will help you separate out like 50% and most of the big pieces then use a hair drier as the source of wind and control the amount by the distance from the end of the tube or a blast gate that drops down like in dust collectors, you can also try making multiple passes in the machine because you are going to be using such a low volume of beans.
would you know if we can mixed cacao nibs and coffee beans?
'To create chocolate from scratch, one must first create the universe'
A suggestion:
Put a double handful of the "grind" in a kitchen strainer. Hold a vacuum cleaner above the strainer and agitate up and down also side to side. Vacuum up the dust from above holding the strainer over a tray or large bowl to catch small pieces of the roasted chocolate.
first thought... im curious how close it would be..... chip separator, the type used in woodworking shops conncted to a vacuum. the heavier parts nibs will fall to the bottom of the container, and the lighter parts husks will suck out into the vacuum.... but then again.... im probably very wrong
The cut you make at 7:54 is my humor.
Look up methods for dry gold panning! They should work pretty well for the winnowing I think.
here in Venezuela our cocoa beans are very famous and the tecnique of the rural areas is to let it dry on the floor by the sun. that should make a diference
if the nib bits sink in water but the husk floats, you might be able to separate them that way. It would be easy to test as well, if you are willing to possibly sacrifice a handful of your nib/husk mix by dropping it in a pan of water (with enough depth that you can skim off whichever floats)
Isnt it easier to lightly crush each bean and remove the comple husk? Leaving the bean intact. Thats what i always do
It's not glamorous, but a box fan on low works well for winnowing tricky grains. I've separated amaranth in a few passes using a such a fan, desire the grain and chaff landing only a few inches apart over a drop of 20 inches.
How about something simple... like a device similar to an air popcorn popper? Blow air upwards through the mixture, and based on the length of the vertical pipe and velocity of the airflow, you should be able to separate out the husks from the nibs.
The tangy notes you are getting in the raw beans is vinegar. The bacteria responsible for the fermentation of the cacao beans creates vinegar as a by-product. Your crumbling of the bean when trying to peel the beans is largely because you aren't being very delicate. We can peel ours as a whole bean about 80-90% of the time. It is however VERY slow. Hand peeling takes hours to get a reasonable amount ready to process. A winnower is definitely the way to go. Chocolate Alchemy has some good DIY plans for building a winnower. Using the airflow to blow out the husk is effective but yes it is VERY messy!
love how much gear you will end up having for chocolate production.