Viva Naturals Organic Cacao Nibs, 2 Lb - Certified Keto and Vegan Superfood, Perfect for Gluten Free Baking and Smoothie Topper, Premium Criollo Beans, Non-GMO

Bought for my kid who had had fun grinding cacao nibs in Mexico to make a chocolate so that he could experiment with it in the kitchen.

These taste great and I like the amount that come in the bag. They have a great, crunchy texture to them and add that chocolate flavor I am looking for to my smoothie bowls. I was having a tough time finding them at the store, but I ended up liking these better anyway.

These nibs are fresh and delicious. Less bitter and easier to chew than others brands we've tasted.

These have a very rich, almost bitter chocolatey flavor that I love adding to my yogurt. The crunch on MOST of the nibs are just right, HOWEVER, every now and then, there is one piece that feels like you are biting a hard piece of plastic. As someone with softer enamel, I feel very cautious when eating, but if you have strong enamel, I can see you not noticing. Just a warning, but otherwise, very good!

Makes a delicious dark chocolate. Has a really nice smooth flavor. Will buy again.

the aroma

Dangerous product- watch your teeth.I don't usually leave reviews but I thought it was important in this case.I should start by saying that I LOVE Cacao nibs, and Viva's are tasty. Cacao nibs are delicious, and an excellent source of fiber. I add them to yogurt, ice cream, and soup, and I even snack on them plain when I'm in the mood for something chocolatey and crunchy but don't want the calories of chocolate bar.I thought these Viva Cacao Nibs were of excellent quality, until I kept biting down on what felt like rocks or sand. These pieces were so hard that I was afraid I might've chipped my molars, and even The smaller hard pieces made eating the cacao nibs really unpleasant. I estimate that every 5-10 bites or so, you get one of these stone-like bites and it's really distressing and dangerous.Upon further investigation, I realized that these "stones" in Viva Cacao Nibs are actually tiny cacao nut stems and/or pieces of cacao nut shell. As it turns out, this company just does not do a careful job of de-stemming and de-shelling, so lots of shell pieces and stems are allowed into the final product. These are the superhard bits that you crack down on if you're not extremely careful.Last night I spent about a half hour manually checking and de-stemming the remaining half of the bag so I can eat the rest with confidence . I'd be willing to pay literally twice the price, or more, to get a product that's more carefully produced, because it's not acceptable to include such a high concentration of dangerous items in the mix.Viva needs to get its act together.UPDATE:After posting this review, I received a flurry of emails from Viva’s customer service team asking me to try another bag. The emails continued over a number of months. I wasn’t sure why they were so concerned with “making things right,” but I thought it was nice, so I gave them my address to send me a new bag, which they claimed would “make things right” ans show me that the “stone”-rich bag I had received was just a fluke.Finally I tried the new bag, and let me tell you: it was the SAME as, or WORSE than, the first one: CHOCK FULL ‘O “STONES” (aka rock-hard cacao stems and shells). Every third or fourth bite contained a tooth-breaking “prize.”Then I looked at my review and was surprised to see the number of “Helpful” ratings it has amassed. I realized that Viva’s desperation to contact me had nothing to do with “making things right,” because they hadn’t changed anything about the product. They just wanted to buy me off with a free bag of “rock”-nibs so that i’d change my negative review and so they could sell MORE bags of their “rock” nibs.Someone is going to be injured consuming this product (that is, if it hasn’t already happened- which I’m sure it may have).I genuinely hope that someone reports this product to the health department and that Viba is banned from continuing to sell it.If they correct the problem, I’m glad to take down this review. But until then, I’ll keep it up.Be ware of Viva Cacao Nibs!

These are great. I wish there were less shell pieces that murder my teeth. I took off a star for the bad sifting. I used to work for a coffee company and this is definitely something fixable in their manufacturing. If they could filter out broken coffee beans, this company can sift out much lighter shells. I eat these raw like chocolate chunks. I’m a bit concerned about the lead and cadmium, but I’ll survive.