Agriculture & food
Cocoa nibs and liquor
Nibs are roasted, cracked and winnowed cocoa. Liquor is nibs ground to a paste. Both are bought on flavour and on shell content, and shell is the figure buyers forget to specify until a gritty batch arrives.
How it leaves the country.
- Roasted nibs
- Cracked and winnowed after roasting. Sold to chocolate makers and, increasingly, as a snack ingredient.
- Unroasted nibs
- For buyers who want to roast to their own profile. A different product and a different microbiological question.
- Cocoa liquor
- Nibs ground to a paste, solid at room temperature. The base for chocolate and for pressing.
- Fine flavour lots
- From specific origins and fermentation practice, sold on cup rather than on commodity grade.
How it is graded.
Flavour comes from fermentation and roast, and everything else is measurable. Two numbers do most of the work.
- Shell content
- Residual shell after winnowing. It is gritty, it dulls flavour and it is the specification buyers most often omit.
- Fermentation
- Decided at origin before any processing. Under-fermented beans give a flat astringent product that no roast recovers.
- Roast profile
- Time and temperature, which set the flavour. If you are buying roasted nibs you are buying somebody else's decision, so taste before committing.
- Moisture
- Low and controlled. Higher moisture invites mould and it changes how liquor behaves in a grinder.
- Fat content
- For liquor, the figure that decides how it behaves downstream and what it is worth.
- Mould toxins and cadmium
- Both are tested in cocoa for regulated markets, and both are decided upstream of the processor.
How it is packed.
- Lined bags in cartons
- Nibs pick up moisture and odour. A barrier liner and sealed cartons protect both.
- Liquor in blocks or drums
- Solid at ambient temperature and it softens in heat. Blocks fuse in a hot container.
- Odour
- Cocoa absorbs smells readily. Do not consolidate with strongly aromatic cargo.
- Ambient, cool stow
- Both forms suffer in a hot container, and liquor suffers visibly.
Where it grows.
Central Sulawesi
Sulawesi
The largest producing region, mostly smallholder, with processing in and around Makassar.
West Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Substantial production feeding the same processing base.
West Papua
Papua
Fine flavour production at small scale, notably around Ransiki.
East Java
Java
Processing capacity rather than growing, close to Surabaya.
Documentation, where applicable.
- Certificate of analysis
- Shell content, moisture, fat, mould toxins and cadmium on the shipped lot.
- HACCP certificate
- Roasting and winnowing are the controls, alongside the microbiological step.1
- EUDR due diligence statement
- Cocoa is in scope for the EU deforestation regulation, and the obligation sits with the operator placing goods on the market.2
- Organic certificate
- Where the beans and the processing are certified, by a certifier your market accepts.3
Questions buyers ask.
What shell content should I specify?
A maximum figure agreed with your own technical people and measured on the shipped lot. What matters is that a number exists, because without one the winnowing quietly gets worse.
Should I buy roasted or unroasted nibs?
Unroasted if you have roasting capability and want to control the flavour. Roasted if you do not, and then taste the actual profile before committing rather than accepting a description.
Does the EU deforestation regulation apply?
Cocoa is in scope, and the obligation to hold geolocation data and a due diligence statement sits with whoever places the goods on the EU market. Establish it before ordering.
What does your service cost?
Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.
Tell us what you need.
Give us the specification and the destination port. We come back with producer options and an indicative price. Our fee is 5 % of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory.
Sources
- 1General principles of food hygiene and the HACCP system. Codex Alimentarius, FAO and WHO. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR). European Commission. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 3Regulation (EU) 2018/848 on organic production and labelling. EUR-Lex. Checked 3 August 2026.