Two new cocoa beans are recently in and available.  Both are available raw and roasted, and one of them I have decided to offer as a Brewing Cocoa.

Bolivia - Organic 2011 -
A couple months ago I had a beautiful, tiny wild Criollo from Bolivia.  It sold out very fast.  The is a different bean.  It’s more traditional in pretty much all aspects.  It’s traditionally grown, is of average size (95-100 g/100 beans)

Raw & Roasted

Ghana - 2011 It has hints of light biscuit, a little vanilla and of course the rather characteristic and “classic” earthy chocolate aroma.

Raw, Roasted & Brewing Cocoa

And of course, all of these are available in Wholesale if that is your need (excepting the brewing cocoa that is).

Finally, I will be heading out of town on Thursday for SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) annual convention.  Consequently on shipping on those days, and likewise I won’t be answering e-mails.  I’ll be back and shipping on Monday.

And I will point out that I am going (aside from the fact that I love coffee as much as chocolate) that I have been working as a technical adviser/consultant/developer on a new product that Behmor Inc is bring out - The Brazen Brewer  -  and it looks very promising that it will work very nicely for brewing Cocoa!.  Check it out.  The Brazen Brewer.  And if you will be at the show, don’t forget to vote for the People’s Choice awards (yes, I am shamelessly promoting this) - Text ECON2 to 86677 to vote for Behmor Inc.

Enjoy and see you next week.

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The site will be migrating today to a new server.  There may (or may not) be some small periods of down time.

Also, I’ve been updating some of the Alchemist Notebook pages - they are not linked in, but you can view them directly here:

Roasting

Cracking and Winnowing (with history of the Aether, plans, and more)

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David and Goliath?

Me and Mini-Me?

Bigger is better?

The tiny powerhouse?

Frankenstein vs….damn can’t think of a small monster.

Well, I really wanted a good one-liner there, but inspiration eludes me.  So I’m just jump into what I want to talk about.  Cocoa bean sizes.  As is the definition of ‘average’, most cocoa beans you will find and buy are of average size.  This generally means they are 90-110 beans/100 grams - industry convention and standard.  What I have for you today are two great examples of the two far ends of the bell curve.

What you have here is a tiny wild harvested Bolivian Organic Criollo at a bean count of 160 beans/100 g and a huge Guatemalan Trinatario at 50-55 beans/100 grams.  Below is 100 grams of each:

What does this mean?  Well, many things…and not much.  Huh?  Let me explain.

Neither will be inherently better or worse first off.  The small one isn’t inferior, nor is it packed with flavor because it is small.  Likewise, the large one isn’t large and tasteless, but neither is it better because of it’s size.  Both are simply notable.

In this case, the Guatemalan has a nice rustic flavor, kind of nutty and carries a unique bitterness, but also some great savory notes.  The wild Bolivian…well, in a word, just makes me happy.  It’s pretty mild, being Criollo, but has great flavors.  Toffee, very soft fruits, butter and blueberries.  And it melds all together seamlessly…and makes me smile.  Plus it’s so damn cute.

OK, from a practical standpoint, you may find the Guatemalan’s may not feed as well in the Crankandstein, whereas the Bolivia will feed great, but both will crack just fine in the Champion.  After that, you will find they both basically winnow the same.  You might expect that because the Bolivian is so small, there ratio of husk to nib would be high, giving you less nib than normal…but thankfully that is not the case since it is a Criollo and one with a particularly light thin husk.  Both turn out to give right around 80% nib.

Finally, I should make a note that both of these are of a limited nature.  When they are gone, they may well be gone for good.

I really hope you try them, enjoy them and that they make you happy.

And as a reminder, Refurbished Behmor 1600s are now readily available.

Filed under: Products, Cocoa Beans, Roasting, What's new & Updates, Alchemist's Musings | 1 Comment »

Everything is back up and running after being down for more than I expected.  TWO failed hard drives….but nothing lost.  It will probably take me a few days to catch up on all orders and e-mail.  Any roasted or brewing cocoa will be delayed a little longer simply due to time constraints.  Thank you in advance for understanding.  Hopefully those can go out by Wednesday, or at worst Thursday.

Thanks.

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Hi folks.  This is not how I wanted to head out of town and to the Chocolate Fest, but….

I am having computer issues, and my main system is going into the shop while I am away.  Unforunately that leaves me unable to fulfill a handful of orders or tell people directly that their orders are delayed.  My apologies.  That said, orders from January 17 (order number 7362 and higher) on won’t be going out until I return on Monday, or possibly Tuesday.

And likewise I will not be answering e-mail until I am back.

On a better note, there will  be new Behmor 1600’s available next week (I’ve made them available now) and a brand new origin cocoa - from Guatemala. 

This particular cocoa is very round and big with a nice mild flavor.  They come from a coop in Cahabn, Guatemala.
Cahabn lies in the Alta Verapaz mountain chain in the state of Coban.  The people in the coop that grow these beans are from the indigenous tribe Kekchi Maya who are used to consuming cocoa in drink form as done in their culture for thousands of years.  They were in the past paid only very little for their cocoa by local brokers but now a contract has been drawn up which allows them to receive 4 times the price more.  All this extra money goes direct to the coop.  Much of the money pays for school for the children of the coop’s members.  The extra income from their cocoa also will allow these people to plant more cocoa trees in some of the deforested lands in their area.

Until the other side.

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I will be attending Chocolate Fest in Portland on January 20-21.  Drop me a line if you will be there - we can see about meeting up and talking and tasting real chocolate.

BTW - no booth - I’m ‘just’ attending.  (hint, look for the chocolate colored kilt)

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