Cocoa nibs used for cooking or baking?
Cocoa nibs are the result of fermenting the seeds from the cocoa fruit (the size of a large   grapefruit), and then roasting the whole cocoa beans, and then de-shelling them

The de-shelling process tends to gently crack the contents into large pieces. Unlike other seeds and nuts this is acceptable as the product is going to be finely ground anyway

You can also buy "raw cocoa nibs", which are fermented, de-shelled, but not roasted. These have a different taste, and do not make good chocolate

Roasted or not they taste interesting and are useful as a whole flavour item in salads, baking, drinks etc. They are very high in fat so use with caution. The fat also has a very low melting point, so will make any warm liquid dish look oily

They are not to everyone's taste, unlike chocolate compound :-)

In both these case the beans have been fermented on the ground for a few weeks. Non-fermented cocoa beans are not very nice (I haven't ever had any though). From what I understand they compare to fermented beans like non-pickled olives are too pickled olives :-/



Roasted cocoa bean nibs, and roasted cocoa beans



Non-roasted cocoa bean nibs