Winnowing Cacao Nibs
How to separate nibs from husk using airflow. A box fan and two bowls is all you need.
Pour cracked nibs from a height into a bowl in front of a box fan on low. The light papery testa drifts away; the heavier nibs fall in. Repeat 3–5 passes, then hand-sort once before grinding.
Get a Nib Wizard →Wide and deep. You'll pour from one to the other. More bowl surface area means better separation.
Box fan at low speed is the most controllable. Hair dryer on cool works for batches under 200g. Outdoors works with a natural breeze.
Good winnowing starts with a good crack. If your nibs are mostly intact pieces, ranging from roughly a quarter to a full nib, you'll get a clean separation. If you have a lot of fine powder, that powder will blow away with the husk and you'll lose yield. Go back and check your cracking process if your output looks like gravel dust. A small amount of powder is unavoidable; a lot means too much force was applied.
The simplest approach if you have outdoor access and a light breeze. Hold one bowl at arm's reach above the other and pour slowly. Angle yourself perpendicular to the wind, not facing into it. Natural airflow handles the separation without any equipment. The husk scatters; collect it in a third bowl or let it go. It's compostable.
Set a box fan on its lowest setting perpendicular to your pour, you want the airflow crossing the falling stream, not blowing directly into it. Hold one bowl about 18–24 inches above the other and pour in a slow, steady stream. The nibs fall straight down; the husk catches the airflow and drifts sideways. Adjust fan speed between passes. This is the most consistent indoor method for batches of any size.
Works best for batches under 200g. Spread nibs and husk in a single layer in a wide, low-sided tray or sheet pan. Set the hair dryer to cool, no heat, and pass it slowly over the surface at a low angle. The husk skitters away; the nibs stay put. Don't use high fan speed or you'll start losing nibs too. For anything over 500g, a box fan is less tedious.
After 3–5 passes, take a handful of nibs to a bright light and look at what you have. You're looking for large papery husk fragments clinging to nibs or sitting loose in the bowl. Some fine testa dust will always remain, that's unavoidable and won't meaningfully affect your finished chocolate. Visible fragments larger than 3–4mm are worth another pass.
Do a final hand-sort before loading the melanger. Spread nibs on a white surface and work through them in sections, picking out visible husk pieces. You're not trying to reach zero, a small amount of testa in the grinder is normal and won't ruin anything. You're removing the obvious stuff. This takes 2–3 minutes for a 1 lb batch and it's worth doing every time. Husk adds astringency the conche can't fix.
If you're winnowing regularly, the Nib Wizard from Chocolate Alchemy is the home-scale equivalent of a commercial aspirator. It attaches to a standard shop vacuum and creates a controlled airflow chamber that gives significantly cleaner results than the bowl method. Worth the investment once you're processing more than a few pounds a month.
Expect to lose roughly 12–15% of cracked weight to husk during winnowing. Losing more than 20% means your crack is producing too much powder. Losing less than 10% usually means residual husk is staying in your nibs, which adds astringency and bitterness that grinding cannot fix.
Log your winnow yield alongside your crack quality and roast notes. Consistent yield numbers across batches mean a consistent process, deviations are worth understanding.
Log a Batch →