Grinding
Expect a Mess!
After your cocoa beans have been roasted, and cracked and winnowed , the next OPTIONAL step in chocolate making is to grind them until they liquefy into cocoa liquor.
Expect a MEss!
What does not work:
I have found many pieces of equipment that just are not up to this task. To name a few, General food processors
Vita-Mix
coffee grinders (burr and blade)
meat grinders (manual and electric)
mortar & pestles (we are talking alchemy here after all)
None are up to the job.
I have heard that a Cuisinart juicer attachment can work, but most juicers will not work. None of the slow and cool juicers will work.
What does work:
The Champion Juicer. It grinds and separates any remaining husk rather nicely. It does take a few of passes, and care must be taken not rush, as the cocoa mass can become too hot, and flavor can be impacted. I have successfully done a 4 pound batch of cocoa beans in about 30 minutes. The only real downside aside from the time and mess is you will lose about 6 oz of liquor in the grinding hub/snout so if you only put in 8 oz, you are down to 2 oz. It is much better to do 2-3 lb so your loss is minimized.
How To use the Champion Juicer
Feed the nibs into the Champion (with the fine screen on now) a handful at a time, using just enough pressure on the tamper to feed the nibs in, but don't bare down - it will just overheat the motor. After two or three handfuls you should see cocoa liqueur coming out of the bottom screen, and whatever husk is left coming out of the spout. Put all of your cocoa nibs through and collect the liqueur. Don't put it through the Champion again as it does not really do anything and just makes a mess.
On the other hand, you should now pass the husk and cocoa liqueur that came out the spout back through the Champion. Each pass will allow more and more husk to be separated out until only husk is coming out of the spout. If you have winnowed well, you may not have any come out by the end.
It is no more complicated than that.