It could happen only in California. Only there could a man start, own and operate a successful upscale winery sporting his own name, then sell it in order to pursue a dream: to start, own and operate another company (sporting a modification of his name) which would strive to make the best chocolate in the world.

The man is John Scharffenberger.  The winery is Scharffenberger Cellars.  And the chocolate business is Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.

Scharffenberger takes a vintner's approach to chocolate-making, selecting the best "varietal" cacao beans from around the world, blending them in proprietary fashion -- and in general, nursing the product through its delicate birthing process until it becomes the premium product bearing his name on your grocer's shelf.  His line of confections is fascinatingly complex; as an introduction to his products I chose what I felt was the most unusual of them all: cacao nibs -- that is, pieces of roasted, shelled cacao beans.

As confectioners have lately been releasing ever higher percentages of cocoa in their dark chocolates, I have wondered what pure, 100% cocoa might be like.  While Scharffen Berger does sell a 99% cocoa baking chocolate, it still does have a touch of vanilla in it, and it has indeed been processed into a homogeneous bar.

In contrast to even that nearly-pure cocoa, Scharffen Berger cacao nibs are the 100% real thing.  Pure chocolate, almost as it comes off the tree.  Yes, there has been a small amount of processing; the raw cacao beans have been shelled and roasted, and the resulting beans have been "cracked" into bite-sized pieces, about the size of those walnut pieces packaged in bags for baking purposes.  Cacao nibs are the point of origin for all chocolate -- the Quelle, the source, the starting point of it all.  They are to chocolate as grapes are to wine.  This is where it all begins.

Before opening the sealed, nitrogen-flushed, inner foil package, I hesitated for a moment, wondering how I might react to totally unsweetened chocolate.  I remembered sneaking into my mother's pantry as a child and biting itnto her baking chocolate -- I shudder to remember the shock of that experience.  Do I enjoy chocolate for its sweetness, or in the total absence of sweetness, am I mature enough to appreciate its other characteristics?

I opened the package and poured a small amount into my hand.  It was indeed a handful of small, surprisingly-chocolatey-looking, cracked beans.  (I had expected them to look dry and hard, like broken coffee beans.)  The color and texture variation in the individual bean pieces was clearly evident.  While this was clearly a pile of largely-unprocessed beans in my hand, the pieces looked creamy, almost like chunks of processed chocolate.  They did not look quite as foreign as I had suspected.  They looked like chocolate.

And the smell -- the aroma was of dark cocoa -- full, dark, aromatic, heavenly chocolate.  I tasted some.  The texture surprised me; they had almost the same texture as almonds.  Indeed, the immediate impression was that I was eating a handful of nuts.  Yet as I chewed, the taste of chocolate filled my mouth, especialy in the back and up into my nose.  Oh, yes, this was chocolate.  But the contradictions were intriguing.  The texture of nuts, but the aroma and flavor of full, dark cocoa!  The lack of sweetness didn't bother me, as this was a totally different experience than eating candy.  Oh, yes, the chocolate aroma and taste did seem slightly out of place with that nutty flavor and texture.  But the overall impression was ... delicious.

Yet I wondered how many people would be turned off by this contradiction.  People have been conditioned to expect their nuts to be dry and crunchy and their chocolate to be smooth and sweet.  But what if it were the other way round?  What if we had turned almonds into candy for centuries, and the occasional unsweetened almond were an oddity, eliciting contradictory responses in its tasters?  And could people have accepted the nutty-chocolatey-ness of simple, toasted cacao beans?

Once one recovers from the initial strangeness of the experience, the true value thereof shines through.  These are delicious, nutty little chunks of intense flavor and bountiful aroma.  It works.  For me, anyway.

I ate them plain.  Scharffen Berger recommends the use of cacao nibs as a sprinkling in various desserts (and even main courses), and provides recipes.  One can even make one's own homemade chocolate by combining cacao nibs with sugar in a coffee grinder, then gently melting the resulting paste and pouring into molds.

A fascinating experience which provides a unique insight into the mysteries of that marvelous product, chocolate, tasting cacao nibs is suspenseful, fun and quite educational.  I consider Scharffen Berger cacao nibs to be heartily recommended as a unique treat for the chocolate lover who is both adventurous and curious.