(no subject)

[alexseanchai]

I wish to register a complaint. To wit: The Happiness Diet advised me to consume cacao nibs in preference to soda. It did not inform me, and it did not occur to me, that unprocessed cacao is bitter as fuck.

Okay, so now I have a bag of cacao nibs. The fuck do I do with them to make them tolerably edible?

ETA: Turns out if you cut a teaspoon of cacao nibs with a cup of Breyer's Reese's ice cream, they're okay!

...Speaking of final planning, Five Wishes Online, at least if you're in most US jurisdictions. Medical power of attorney, advance medical directive, and living will all in one $5 package.

Comments

[kittydesade]

Unprocessed cacao IS bitter as fuck. It does have all the useful bits of chocolate without all the sugar and fats, but it tastes like bitter ass. I don't know if that's better or worse than soda because to me soda tastes like sickly sweet ass.

But yes, you can cut it with ice cream, or you can I think melt it in coffee (I don't like coffee either, I'm a bad American who doesn't consume normal caffeine) or you can try dark chocolate? 75% or above, which is still bitter but marginally more tolerable?

[alexseanchai]

In future I will just do dark chocolate! But meanwhile I have a freaking pound of cacao nibs that's going to take forever to go through at the rate of 1 tsp nibs per 1 cup ice cream!

...Coffee is a thought, though. :)

[madgastronomer]

Unprocessed cocoa nibs have cocoa butter, which is a fat. It's cocoa powder that's had the cocoa butter removed. Nibs don't dissolve or melt.

You can, however, steep them in tea. I have a tea that include nibs.

[kittydesade]

That's what I'm thinking of, steeping! I'm not with it this weekend.

Cacao nibs

[dialecticdreamer]

put them in a quart jar, soak them overnight in water. Add as much cayenne as you can tolerate to give it some zing, and use one ounce of this with seven ounces of cold water. DELICIOUS ice-cold (and I -loathe- cold drinks)!

Re: Cacao nibs

[alexseanchai]

Oooo. Thanks!

Re: Cacao nibs

[dialecticdreamer]

The drink of the Mayan kings!

SERIOUSLY.

OH, and you can throw a quarter cup of coffee grounds in there, too, to up the caffeine. I don't drink coffee and I love this stuff.

Re: Cacao nibs

[alexseanchai]

Ooo!

Re: Cacao nibs

[jelazakazone]

Do you smash the nibs or whip the beverage at all? No sugar?

Re: Cacao nibs

[dialecticdreamer]

Cracking them makes them release more flavor, but I used the same mortar and pestle kiddo reserves for his coffee.

You can sweeten it to taste, but I tend to use cayenne instead of sugar, in very, very small amounts. Add cayenne to water and lemon juice, instead of sugar, and I call that "spicy lemonade." It's different ENOUGH that I don' crave sugar, which is a REAL problem when someone in the family is NOT supposed to have much at all. Removing temptation has been a way to get some fun new foods in.

[niqaeli]

I am moderately bewildered as to the general efficacy of any substitution that asks one to eat something instead of drinking a liquid that provides hydration as well as everything that is dissolved in it?? Which is why I quite like the suggestion in your comments of making a drink from the cacao nibs as a solution. Hopefully it works for you!

[alexseanchai]

Hopefully!

[redsixwing]

Buh? That seems like an odd choice. (I mean yeah, there's caffeine and theobromine but.. what everyone else said.)

I love cacao nibs, but I like bitter things anyway.

My favorite preparation is chocolate-coated - at home, take some chocolate of your favorite cacao percentage (I think higher tastes better, but see above), melt it down, stir in the nibs. The really good store-bought ones have just a thin coating of chocolate on individual nibs, but at home, putting the nibs in thickly is a fine substitute. Crack it up into small pieces and eat with your favorite sweet thing to knock the bitterness down.

I seriously want to try the cold drink described above. Yum!

[alexseanchai]

Ooo. :)