Level: Novice

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This is only kind of an Ask the Alchemist as there is no one question I’m answering but instead I simply want to address some observations I’ve noted having been in this business since 2002.  That said, I’m going to fake a couple questions that have been asked but really are just paraphrases of ones asked over the years.

“I see you have beans from a couple years ago.  Are they still good? I would prefer fresher beans.”

“I spend so much time sorting my beans and lose probably 20% because they are different sizes and some are not fermented well.  What really clean beans can you recommend?”

Really, this is going to be all about pre-conceived notions and expectations.  And I’ve addressed them before but as more people get into chocolate making, it seems there is a need to address many of them again.  So here we go.

First, I’ll be the first to point out that correlation is not causation, yet that is generally for a case point.  After a while, as data accumulates, you start to notice patterns that make you consider if there is some correlation.

This is as good as time as any to announce I have a new but not new bean in stock.  It is Alto Beni from  Bolivia….from 2016.  Nope, these are not fresh, and yes, of course they are still good.  Otherwise, I would not be offering them, right?  Have a look at these two spider charts.

Bolivia2015.jpg
Bolivia2016.jpg

 Keep in mind I made one of these 3 years ago, and the other last week…..and there is hardly any difference, and what differences might be from the bean changing or it might simply be that I’m 3 years older and have subtle differences in my palette or the way I roasted them.  In either case, this bean has hardly changed and certainly has not gone bad. And if I look at the charts objectively there could be a case to me made that the years have been really good to this bean and it is actually MORE flavorful now, not less. Interesting huh?

We also made a video about how we evaluate beans which includes information on stock we’ve had for longer periods of time.

My main point here is that you can’t just go by crop year.  I mean, for goodness sakes, wine and whisk(e)y often get better with age.  You look for those at the peak of their flavor and there is often no predicting it.  What you can feel pretty confident about is that it is super rare for a product to go from good to bad on a set schedule and specifically on an arbitrary timeline like being a year old.

This is a good solid data point (and only one of many really) that solidly proves it is not a rule that beans are best fresh or go bad after a year or two….or even three. 

There is even another side of the coin that didn’t show up until just a few years ago as the craft chocolate movement started to get into swing.  Let this sink in - beans can actually be too fresh. What brought it to my attention was that I received samples from origin at one point, and knew them pretty well from past history….and was stunned when I found them lacking in flavor and nuance and I declined them.  Fast forwarding to 18 months later I tried them again, not realizing they were the same set of beans.  This time I approved them. They were totally in line with what I expected from these origins.  The ONLY thing that had changed was that 18 months had past.  Mind you, I don’t know exactly what changed from a chemistry standpoint, any more than I know what has changed in a bold red wine that was too fresh last year and is succulent this year.  All I know is that that rest period made the beans better, not worse.  They NEEDED the time to finish up various chemical reactions and mature as it were.  And I’ve seen this played out more and more.  This is something that we buyers are learning.  In the past the choice of beans were pretty much restricted to containers that had come in already and were often nearly a year old or more before we ever got to taste them.  And that right there is supporting, albeit circumstantial, evidence that fresh again is not always best.

That is about I have to say about that.  Mainly, get out of your mindset that beans MUST be fresh.  Sometimes that may be true, and maybe the majority of the beans you have liked have been only a year old….but keep an open mind that it can take a lot of data before you can make real preference rules like that and really all it takes is a couple data points (like I’ve given) to prove the lie to that ‘rule’.

So there are my thoughts about generalizing about crop age.  Let’s move onto another set of general assumptions about beans and their preparation.  Look at the following sets of beans from the same country and region and see what you think about using them.

1 – Beautiful plump organic beans, with a perfect cut test, from well managed farms and consistent high Criollo stock, all brought to a central fermentation center and fermented with a solid and consistent procedure.

2 – Smaller beans that were harvested from select native tree stock with heirloom genetics, brought to and fermented in a central fermentation center with a solid and consistent procedure.

3 – Tiny native beans of unknown genetics that were harvested and fermented by individuals with a wide variety of techniques and little consistency, that show significant variation cut tests and final appearance where many people will find the desire to sort.

I’ll tell you from over a decade of discussing this with customers and suppliers, if that is the information given, the desire for those beans is pretty much the order I listed them in.  No real surprise there.  And I suspect you know where this is going as the reality (or my reality since it is my tastes) is that is EXACTLY the wrong order.  What I’ve described to you are:

1 – Conventional Alto Beni Organic beans

2 – Wild Harvest Heirloom Tranquilidad

3 – Wild Harvest Itenez

And that is the opposite order that I like them in.  The Itenez is clearly the best of the three beans.  It has a depth of flavor and complexity that the other two don’t have.  Do I know why?  Not 100% but I have my suspicions.  Over these last 18 years, again as the craft industry grows, I’ve watched bean preparation get cleaner and more consistent and some would say better…or at least they look better.  More and more solid fermentation and drying protocols are going into place.  The beans are super consistent visually.  People are sorting less and less….and I’m rejecting more and more samples as boring.  They are not bad (in many cases) but neither is box wine from California (in many cases).  But they are rarely great. 

Now, is there a correlation between clean and even fermentation and less than stunning beans?  I’m not sure but after a while, and with enough data, it certainly leans in that direction.  As I think back to some of my top 10 favorite beans ever, I DO notice a solid pattern that the majority of them were not pretty and didn’t have consistent fermentation.  And that kind of thing just can’t be ignored and it is also the kind of thing I’ve worried about for years since comparing two samples.  One was a classic fermentation and drying.  It was ok, but not awesome. The other had a very strict protocol, used an inoculation for consistency, was utterly beautiful and fragrant…..and tasted so so boring.

I’ve also noted a pattern of new origins and how they change.  Belize was amazing years ago when I first tasted it.  Now they are good and I’m happy enough with it that I keep it in stock, but I’ve seen it change as they have grown and protocols have adjusted for consistency.

I’ve watched the same thing happen with Fiji.  The first crop utterly blew me away from a flavor standpoint but were not pretty.

Ditto with the Wild Bolivia above…and again with Dominican Republic Zorzal.  They are WONDERFUL beans but looking back through my spider charts I see they were more dynamic the first couple years while they worked out their procedures.  Now they are good, and maybe even still great…but there is just that little spark that seems to be absent now.

The big thing I want to point out is that so much of this is driven by stated customer desires, and being a free market, the producers are changing what they are doing to (rightfully so) to try and give the customers what they want and maintain sales….unfortunately many of these said customers are newbies who are new to the scene and are coming in with pre-conceived notions that pretty is better.  They have been indoctrinated that they HAVE to sort for a quality product and MUST use the freshest possible beans….and I sincerely believe it is hurting the industry.

Now, the other side of this is that a lack of consistency doesn’t always lead to a great product.  In my top 5 beans ever is a crop from Nigeria I had a couple years ago….and OMG was it ugly and inconsistent, but it had layer after layer of depth and complexity.  It was truly incredible….but they could never reproduce it again.  

I will totally grant that there is a continuum of haphazard preparation and stellar consistency.  We don’t want to really be at either end.  At one end you are gambling the whole pot on the roll of the dice and whereas the payoff might be huge (getting into the Alchemist’s top 5) you could also lose everything.  That doesn’t make for a good supply chain.  But you also don’t want to compromise the quality of the beans for the safety of a mediocrity, but safe product. I just fear that if we keep this up, if makers keep demanding super clean, super consistent beans, we may well lose the option of those rare but really stunning flavors that happened with more frequency in the past.

And maybe these observations aren’t right.  It is totally possible that I’m making correlations that don’t exist.  The thing is that I’m in a very unique position to have seen a LOT of beans and watch patterns over the years and when you apply that to other industries it isn’t a new thing that consistency and safety and money are the drivers of mediocrity.  Just think about a rich German pilsner turning into Budweiser, fresh crunchy bread turning into Wonder bread, and sharp aged cheddar turning into sliced yellow cheese.  We don’t need another Hershey’s chocolate if you catch my meaning.  Let’s learn from previous mistakes.

You can help by evaluating beans and chocolate on their own, and complete merits and not on their age or how well they photograph for your next social media post.

Has anyone else noticed this trend?

Food for thought and rant over. 

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