Daily musings and writings from the Alchemist
Viewing entries in
Cocoa Beans
Let’s start off with saying this bean ranks in my top 10 favorites ever. It has virtually everything I love about chocolate rolled into one. Just look how it pegs the chocolate category in the spider graph! And sweet. And fruity. And nutty. The flavors just keep coming and coming.
Yeah, I’m that impressed.
Every Tuesday, for the next few months we are going to be putting out a new video on our youtube channel, How to Make Chocolate at Home. In a similar manner to my walls of words in text, I ramble a bit, taking this or that side path as it suites what I am attempting to convey. All about cocoa beans is new.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLYEGb3f5ps[/embed]
I hope you enjoy it.
It's more like cocoa-tea-time but you get the drift I suspect. May I present Alchemist's series #7 - The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.
TLDTTOTS is replacing Fire and Brimstone #4. It is a semi-dark, richly chocolate, brewing cocoa. Very possibly the best yet (at least I like it the best). I really enjoy it at 202 F in the Brazen Brewer.
New Direct Trade India is in. It also makes a killer Brewing cocoa. Hot or cold.
4 new Venezuelan are on the way. Fruity Sur del Lago, delicate Cuyagua, silky Canoba, and rich Guanino.
Most likely Belize and Maranon....still finishing the tasting and evaluation.
Testing and Evaluation beans are back.
Finally, I am now offering the Behmor 1600 plus with free shipping (lower 48 USA only and with no beans).
Oh, and some of you may have noticed that Ask the Alchemist went AWOL last week. That happens from time to time when no questions are in the queue. So, what do you want to know?
This is almost, but not quite, an 'it's back' moment. I have offered a wild Bolivia in the past. That was from the Alto Beni region. This time the beans are from the Beniano. Basically the same local native (heirloom?) stock but a different elevation and soil type. And still very small and full of flavor. Also, a brand new origin has cleared customs and is in route to the warehouse. Direct trade India. I'm very excited working with a group of about 20 farmers there. Stay tuned.
We have a lone bag of 2016 Organic Belize in. At this point, given how the supplier is handling distribution, I'm not confident we will be seeing any more available any time soon. For those unfamiliar with it, the raw beans have an odor of old school juicy fruit hard candy. While roasting there is toasted macadamia nuts, warm proofing spelt bread and a lovely savory quality with a touch of tang from fermentation. Once in chocolate form (75% for my tests) there is sweet caramel......go read about it.
Level: Apprentice
Read time: 7 minutes
What is your opinion on the use of cocoa butter? Can you suggest how much I should add? I don’t want to add too much or too little.
It seems like if you have 4 chocolate makers in a room, you will have 6 opinions on its use. And a little surprisingly to me, they are often very adamantly held opinions. They run the full spectrum too, from loving it to thinking it is an abomination. Or stuff like “The best chocolate has only two ingredients”. I don’t see that. There is no best chocolate. It is a matter of what you like. Sometimes I think it is a type of machismo. Drinking the hoppiest IPA, eating the hottest wings, only having the darkest or ‘purest’ chocolate. Whatever. Me? I like chocolate with a little cocoa butter in it.
With that out of the way, let’s delve into cocoa butter.
First off, you don’t have to add extra cocoa butter to your chocolate. Or at least some of the darker chocolates. The reason being that cocoa beans as they come contain 50-55% cocoa butter naturally. That is what makes cocoa liquor flow. That is why I say extra, since it already contains some.
At the very basic level you need about 35% cocoa butter in any chocolate you make or it will be just too thick to refine. That means any dark chocolate above roughly 70% additional cocoa butter is purely optional because it will flow. For a 50% chocolate though, if you do the maths, you will find there is only about 25% cocoa butter in there, so you will need at add at least 10% extra just to get a workable chocolate.
But how about over and above what is strictly needed?
I add 5% cocoa butter to nearly all of my chocolates as a matter of routine. Currently my standard evaluation chocolate consists of 75% cocoa nibs, 5% cocoa butter and 20% sugar. I do it this way for the same reason many people add a couple drops of water to whisky when they are tasting it. In a rather counter-intuitive way, it actually brings out more flavor instead of diluting the flavor as you might expect.
There seem to be two prevailing theories why this happens. My thought is that it is probably some combination of the two.
The first goes like this. Think about a piece of hard rock candy. It dissolves very slowly in your mouth. Sure, it is sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. What happens on the other hand if you put a teaspoon of sugar in your mouth? It is instantly and powerfully sweet. But both are effectively pure sugar. What is different? It comes down to how quickly the sugar can dissolve and reach your taste buds. The sugar granules have lots of surface area and dissolve very quickly giving you an intense punch of sensation. The rock candy takes much longer.
In chocolate the cocoa butter is what carries the flavor to your taste buds. The more there is of it, the faster it melts and you can get that punch of flavor. The more the punch, the more flavor you perceive.
Of course, there is a limit. At some point you are indeed diluting the amount of flavor in there, and even with the punch, there is nothing behind it. I’ve found 5% is easy and makes a nice difference. 10% can really bring some extra flavor to the table. And in some cases 15% can allow flavors that you initially could not perceive to become noticeable.
I just recently did a Ghana bar from 50% cocoa nib, 30% sugar, and 20% cocoa butter. Technically a 70% bar, it was radically different from one without any cocoa butter. Without any, it was pretty neutral. There was a fine chocolate flavor, but not a whole lot else. With the addition, the chocolate was more intense, and there were notes are caramel and vanilla and overall was actually a more memorable chocolate.
And this show the second mechanism in play.
Ghana has a very intense chocolate flavor. It can actually be too intense in that it pummels your taste buds. The result is that they get saturated and you taste less. This particularly shows up in something like whiskey. You hardly ever see it at 55% ABV. It’s just too strong. And if you do, like in cask strength, it is very well known and accepted that if you add a bit of water to bring it down to 45% there are very noticeably more flavors and aromas. I’ve tasted this myself with chocolate. 85, 90, 95%. You are not macho for being able to handle it. Hell, there is nothing to handle. It’s just chocolate for goodness sake. But you could well be blunting your taste buds from the overwhelming input. Diluted down just a little bit allows you to taste things that otherwise might be lost.
Many a teenager blasted music to 11. At that level I’ll grant it is a visceral experience. And maybe you like it. But if the music in question has anything else going on, it’s going to be lost. Dial it back to 7-8 and suddenly there is more to notice and more to appreciate. As we get older, we learn these things. We mature. We learn balance. We discover more is not, well, more. Quite often, it’s less.
So I submit to you that there is no competition to eat the darkest, hard core chocolate. If you really, truly enjoy it, then more power to you. Hell, I love a good vindaloo dialed to 11. But maybe try dialing it back a little and see what other melodies and counter points come to light.
You might be surprised.
Level: Apprentice
Read time: 4 minutes
After winnowing I was told to remove all excess of twigs from the nibs (which is the root of each bean- see picture attached) otherwise my chocolate would be bitter! The task is huge!!! We can only remove 2 pounds per hour per person so for me it is rather an additional stress.
I have been grinding 3 different batches. The first 25lbs batch I left it for 24hrs. It was good but a bit over roasted, the second was much better and I left it for 36 yours. I tried a batch with the “twigs” to taste the difference and this batch grinded for 36 hrs too. I agree that it tasted bitter in the grinder but not so bad once tempered….Please give me your thoughts on these twigs.
My opinion is that it is utter nonsense. And I’ll say it again, it is my opinion.
Now let’s talk about it.
Those twigs are called the germ of the cocoa bean. The theory goes, as you described, is that they are horridly bitter and must be removed to make quality chocolate. I’ve heard this over and over, and have yet to see any solid proof of it. Just opinion. Which is all I am giving you.
But try this. Get a roasted cocoa bean. Look to the large end. You will see a small circle like indentation. With your fingers or tweezers pull out the germ. Or just crack the bean and pull it out. Taste it. Chew it up really well.
Is it bitter? To my tastes it is not. It’s a bit harder than a nib (but it will still refine down), but mostly I find it woody and neutral tasting. And even if it were, how could something that amounts to less than 1% of the weight of the chocolate ruin it? I have real trouble believing that.
So maybe it reacts with something in the chocolate and makes it bitter? Great theory, but having done tasting after tasting, I have yet to find that substantiated. I cannot taste any difference and I’ve never met a person that can tell me from a blind tasting whether a chocolate has had the germ removed. I’ve only seen the reviews where a bar is raved over and it is disclosed that the maker has gone to the extra trouble to remove the germ.
Correlation is not causation for one. And two, that sound suspiciously like cherry picking data or knowledge based bias. You know it does or does not contain germ and skew your expectations and what you think you taste accordingly.
And also the assertion does not take into account the huge number of award winning chocolates out there that have germ. It seems conveniently ignore that.
My suggestion is to do the test again. Make sure you use the exact same roast batch and that you blind taste the results. And in a perfect test, have more than just two samples. Make up 4 of each and taste them all. Blind.
I’d put money on you not being able to tell them apart reliably.
If it turns out you can, then ok. I’m a supporter of data and YOUR tastes. If you like it better without germ, then by all means remove it. But do it because it REALLY makes a difference AND you like the difference more.
My suggestion as always is to make the chocolate you like. And not do extra work that is not needed.
In my case that means I ignore the germ. And think you should too.
Those are my thoughts.
Today is all about Direct Trade. It's been six months coming, but 3 new beans are finally here from Vietnam. And all of them are big, bold, intensely flavored beans. Just look how round the displays on all the spider charts are. They are just big everywhere. Ben Tre - The flavor is big and intense. It is tangy and the deep sharp flavor of raisins and a hefty doses of chocolate.
Lam Dong - Fruit cake. In so many ways that sums up this bean. Chocolate aroma with a touch of allspice. I have to admit, I actually moaned (just a little) with my first bite.
And Tien Giang - This chocolate is high in spice, tobacco and nutty flavors.
And on the chance you missed it, go check out the other new Direct trade bean that is in.
Honduras Wampursirpi. In particular, check out the Details tab. I just updated a bunch information about Biosphere and what they are actively doing to support the farmers and communities in the region long term. I'm really stoked about all they are doing.
First off you can use any of the Brewing cocoas. Combine a couple heaping tablespoons in a pint of cold water, give it a shake and let it set for a day, then strain it off. It could hardly be simpler.
http://shop.chocolatealchemy.com/products/ecuador-2015-puert-quito-organic http://shop.chocolatealchemy.com/products/ecuador-2015-pequino
Both are brand new beans that I've not had in before. Lush chocolate and nutty flavors. And very clean. Check them out.
What would you say is the most sought after type of bean right now between Criollo and Trinitario? Also, where would be the best country to source these beans from?
This is sort of a trick question. I am pretty sure it was not meant that way, but it is one nonetheless. It makes too many wrong assumptions. “do you still kick your dog?” How do you even answer that if you never kicked your dog or don’t even own one? In court, I think it is called asking a leading question and they are not allowed for a reason. They introduce bias.
And the answers, when given are not at all useful. But I’ll do it to try and make the point.
The first part is easy. Criollo is by far the most sought after type of bean. And except from an idle curiosity point of view, I have no clue why you are asking. Why do you care?
It is sought after because people think it is inherently better. And because it is the least common. Pretty much pure supply and demand mentality. The really funny part about though is that as soon as it becomes readily available, the desire to have it drops.
Many of the beans I carry from Peru are Criollo. And sure, they sell fine. But they sell well despite being Criollo, not because they are Criollo. “Criollo” makes the first sale. The taste and quality keep people coming back. The Oro Verde is a nice fruity beans that is clean and chocolatey. And it is Criollo. Those that buy it because it is Criollo are often surprised that ‘it isn’t any different’ from any other fruity bean that is clean and chocolatey. What I mean by that is that they have put the Criollo up on a pedestal and are disappointed that being Criollo does not in and of itself make it special. .
It is ‘special’ because the farmers took care harvesting it.
It is special because it was fermented well and evenly.
It is special because it was handled well from start to finish and had good potential to start with.
It is not special because it is Criollo.
It is special because it’s natural potential was cultivated and realized.
And those that taste it expecting something different (I’m never sure what they are expecting) are invariable disappointed, and 9 times out of 10 tell themselves the story that ‘it must not REALLY” be Criollo and continue on with their holy grail search. They have introduced bias into their evaluation because of false, unfounded expectations.
And speaking of holy grails. Let’s talk Criollo Porcelana. That rare of the rare, super special of the special. There is rarely a week that goes by that I don’t get asked if I can get some. Hugely sought after.
About 6 weeks ago the question stopped coming in. Why? I am carrying Porcelana. And it had VERY brisk sales for about 2 weeks…..and now I still have a couple hundred pounds selling at a moderate pace. Why?
Once something is found, quest finished, end of story. Why?
Because although it is a nice bean, people have found that other beans are more to their liking. Being called Porcelana may even have worked against it, setting expectations so high that no bean, no matter how good, could attain the god like status it was granted because of it’s name. A real pity too as it is a nice bean.
Ok, I’ve beat that horse quite enough I think. Next question.
Where? Which country?
The semi sarcastic yet very real answer is those countries that have Criollo. That would be the Americas. The issue here is again it is the wrong question. “Countries” don’t make a bean good or bad. Genetics, handling, farms, weather, fermentation, drying, people etc make a bean good or bad and that is independent of country.
Maybe the better question is ‘how do I find good Criollo?’ And better yet, ‘How do I find good cocoa beans?’
The short answer is there is no one answer.
I evaluate dozens if not hundreds of beans a year. I don’t evaluate them on their pedigree, country or certifications. Sure, those many come into play AFTER I determine if it is a good bean, but that is it.
I make chocolate from the samples and evaluate them. Blind. If they pass muster, then I look at those other very important pieces of data and weigh if they are worth offering to you. Are they organic? Are they fairly traded?
The key here is that a beans quality and taste are what are important to me. Not it’s ‘type’.
And so I recommend the same to you. Don’t look for a type. Don’t look for a country. Look for a cocoa bean that makes a chocolate that you love.
Keep an open mind. Look and taste different beans. Evaluate them for what they are, not what you want them to be. And should you determine you don’t like one, for heaven’s sake don’t write off any entire country or type. It makes as much sense never dating another person with brown hair that is from Chicago because you once didn’t get along with a brown haired person from Chicago.
That pretty much sums it up.
Don’t discriminate. Don’t prejudge. Keep an open mind.
Those are good life rule and work very well for chocolate too.
First and foremost, I want to present the NutraChef 'cocoa press' oil expeller. You can now make your own cocoa butter at home at the press of a button. I tasted the most amazing milk chocolate made with some fresh pressed Madagascar cocoa. The caramel notes were amazing and fully due to the single origin butter, as it was totally missing from the 'control' made with the natural cocoa butter we offer.
The next new product is a variation on whole milk powder. This is Heavy Cream powder. So, instead of milk chocolate, you can make Cream Chocolate. At 72% butter fat, you can add it directly to an existing dark chocolate recipe without adding any extra cocoa butter like you would with a milk chocolate.
Finally, a new origin. A lovely base note cocoa bean from Trinidad and Tobago. The taste that comes through for me is dried mission fig, date sugar and toasted pecans.
Might I suggest a Single Origin Trinidad Cream chocolate?
2 lbs Trinidad and Tobago roasted cocoa, winnowed to 24 oz.
5 oz Trinidad and Tobago home pressed cocoa butter (results from a 500 gram batch)
1 lb Heavy cream powder
1 lb sugar
This should be unlike ANY chocolate you have ever tried.
No Ask the Alchemist today. The queue is empty. Mind you, I thought I was setting a new record this week for submissions, but somehow things have become confused. All the messages were general questions to me. Do you ship here? Can you ship this out today? Do you sell tempering machines? Where can I buy a Champion? To clarify, question@chocolatealchemy.com is for 'in depth' questions generally about the chocolate making process. Not like the above.
So, have I really answered everything you want to know out there?
And to give you something to look forward to, three new products should be available tomorrow.
Stay tuned and get those questions in.
I have an Italian espresso maker with individual control of brew temp and pressure and I would like to start making "mocha" shots, 50/50 coffee/cocao. Any suggestions on a particular bean, grind, proportion, or technique to get started.
I heard you are getting some porcelano in. How do I roast it? I know it should be very light because it is puree Criollo, but I’m lost after that. I don’t want to ruin it.
First the bomb. Yes, I have some Porcelano in that will be available next week. Next, if you roast it very light your chances of ruining it go WAY up.
Let’s talk about assumptions, pre-conceived notions, patterns, extrapolations and the fallacies of trying to use patterns we think we have found to make predictions. It’s human nature. I get that. But it’s a nasty trap to fall into. It is a variation of ‘correlation is not causation’. What that means is just because you see a pattern, “My knee hurts. The last time my knee hurt, it rained,. It must be about to rain” doesn’t mean that the two facts are related.
The variation I tend to see is slightly different than the knee pain one. It is usually associated with around general cocoa types, their availability, worth and how to handle them. It usually goes like this.
There are three types of cocoa (not really true, and part of the problem, but moving forward). Forastero, Trinatario and Criollo.
Forsatero is the most common accounting for around 85-90% of cocoa grown.
Trinatario is next about 10-15%
Criollo is the most rare in the lower single digits.
Next, there is a general trend we see in price. Forastero is the least expensive, Trinatario and Criollo are more expensive.
And similarly, painting with a broad brush, there is a general trend of cocoa quality is Forastero at the bottom, Trinatario next and Criollo at the top.
Finally, when you roast cocoa, there is a very generalized trend that emerges.
Criollo 235 - 270 F Trinatario 250 - 285F Forastero 260 - 310 F
And what we now have are three groups of data that appear to reinforce one another and that is a very powerful thing in the human mind. It makes us want to draw conclusions and predictions where they don’t exist. The ‘conclusion’?
“Forastero is the cheapest bean, of the lowest quality and roasts the hottest”. Therefore, (trumpets sound), “Criollo is the most expensive, best quality and must be roasted very cool”.
I cannot tell you how often I hear this. It is so ingrained. And so very wrong.
Forastero is the cheapest NOT because of its poor quality but because it is produced in the most quantity. Basic economics. Supply is high, so price is low (again a not quite true premise, but helpful in this case). Notice I never said Criollo is more expensive than Trinatario? I’m will to wager though that is what you thought I said. Your brain forced the pattern. I only said it was the rarest. The same goes for a lot of Forastero being ‘bad’. If only 25% is bad, then just by the nature of there being so much of it, the ‘bad Forastero’ out numbers all the other non-Forastero.
And there it is. The issue. Rarity and how it does not relate to quality (or roasting). Porcelano is the rarest of the rare. Therefore the logic goes, since it is the rarest it MUST be the best and MUST be roasted to coolest…..and it is totally wrong. It doesn’t work that way.
There is a range of roasting for Criollo of 235-270 F. It is because each bean is different. It is NOT because there is a pattern in the pattern. It does not mean that the more pure the Criollo is the cooler it much be roasted. It’s just an empirical observation from roasting Criollo over the years. If you look again at the temperature ranges I gave up there you will see they all overlap in the 260-270 range. Roast any bean to 260 F and you have a better than not chance that the roast will be fine. Any more fine tuning than that and you are asking for trouble.
Back to the original question and the assumption:
I know it should be very light because it is pure Criollo.
By now you should see how wrong that assumption/conclusion is. The only thing you can say is that it is rare. And that is just because it cross breeds easily, is a low producer and isn’t as hardy as many cacao trees. That’s all. Just because it is on one end of one parameter (availability, i.e. it’s rare), does not mean all its parameters are shoved over to one end of the graph.
I’m going to repeat this.
Porcelano is rare. End. Stop. That doesn’t mean it is the best, must be roasted the lightest, has the most antioxidants, will give you the best endorphin rush or anything else. It just means it is the rarest.
Ok, so the rant is over.
So how do you roast the rarest of the rare of cocoa beans? You certainly don’t want to roast it super light because it is super rare? Right? Right!
Might I suggest you treat it like any other bean. Hrm, I bet shooting for 260 F would be a GREAT place to start. Maybe take it a little more gentle because it is Criollo, but note, I said a LITTLE. Not “a lot” because it is Porcelano.
It is already starting out a little light on the chocolate flavor as it isn’t Forastero, so you want to encourage those flavor developments by giving it a good solid roast. Develop those flavors. But nice and easy. At the end of the day, enjoy the chocolate for what it is. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because it is rare, and because it is sought after that it is because it is going to be the best chocolate ever. Those are all unrelated items. Maybe it will be, maybe it won’t be. You won’t know until you try it and decide for yourself. Because, after all, that is all that counts. Do YOU like it.
And that brings up the final point. It is very possible you WILL want to roast it light. That you like the bright snappy flavor, the low chocolate level and that too is perfectly ok. Just don’t think you have to.
We are kicking the new year off with three new beans. First, the brand new one, and maybe my favorite of the bunch (since I just finished writing up the review, it is of course the last chocolate I ate, so of course it is my favorite).
Peru FT/Org Norandino 2015/16 - There is orange marmalade, molasses and dried pear competing for dominance.
Madagascar Sambirano Valley Organic 2016 - We ran out briefly last year. This is the newest crop. Still a powerhouse. This year instead of raspberry, it is virtually exploding with cherry and raisin.....
Uganda Org 2015 - There is an undeniable roundness to the flavor profile this year. Very base and solid chocolate. I find an inherent sweetness that contributes to the perception of a full flavor.
And lastly, I want to remind you of one we put up last month. Honduras Wampusirpi. We are down to the last bag, so get it before it is gone.
Honduras Wampusirpi 2016 Direct Trade/"organic" The first aroma I get is of soft leather, like a supple piece of deer skin. Buttery almost. With that comes along flavors of bright dried fruits. This just might be my favorite bean from last year and this lot is imperceptible in it's differences.
Two new bean offerings.Tanzania - Direct Trade Kokoa Kamili Cooperative. There is a clean earthiness and up front chocolate aroma. There are deep base fruits, dried prune and damson plum in the nose. The chocolate has dark flavors of brown sugar, toffee, coffee and a fully balanced citrus (lemon?) acidity
The next is #2 in the Alchemist Blend Series. May I present the whimsical and dynamic:
Alchemist Blend #2 - Floor Sweeper -
Let's get this out of the way first and foremost. No beans in this blend were actually swept up off the floor. Okay? Good.
That said, this blend was totally inspired by the end of day sweepings. It scary/sad how much cocoa gets dropped while packing, even when we are very careful (it doesn't go to wasite, I use it for my own in house tests). But it got me thinking.
This is the result. And I'll tell you the secret recipe.....equal parts of everything in stock at the time. The result? Read on...
We will be closed and away starting Wednesday 9/30/15 - Sunday 10/4/15 at the Northwest Chocolate Festival. Please let me know if you will be there. I'd love to meet up! If in doubt, look for the kilt and vest - I should not be hard to find.No orders will be processed during that time, nor will emails be read or answered. I travel technologically light.
In the mean time, we have two new elegant Guatemalans in. Chimelb and Lachua. Both are very restrained chocolates. In a world of super IPA's, massively hot spices, monster quadruple shot power drinks and general 'how big can we make it' there is something to be said for a nice, well balanced restraint chocolate that you can enjoy. Don't undersell 'approachable' - in this case it's a compliment.
Also, supply is very limited. Enough so that I won't be offering them Wholesale. So get them before they are gone for good.
How do I make chocolate taste like chocolate? I don’t want raspberry, peaches and leather in my chocolate! I just want chocolate! Please help. OK, that made me chuckle….but I know exactly what you are talking about.
First off, it does. Taste like chocolate that is. All those flavors you read about are on top of the basic chocolate flavor.
And it is worth going off on a minor tangent to tell you there is no single compound or chemical that tastes of chocolate. In the same way there isn’t one that smells like chocolate (chocolate smell is a combination various compounds that smell like sweat, cabbage and beef (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sensomics-chocolate-smell/) there many compounds that once combined make us say “chocolate”.
This is actually pretty critical and I guess not so much of a side tangent. More in a moment.
Back to the flavor of chocolate. I have found that it seems to happen in every ‘new’ or rediscovered area of food. Bread. Beer. Cheese. Everyone knows that those flavors are. You probably grew up with them. They taste and smell like home or childhood….and I bet you have not tasted them since. Why? Well, I am hypothesizing but I think a lot of it has to do with homogenization, industrialization and how modern food are/were made. Basically, they were made into the least common denominator. Something that tasted like bread, beer and cheese in general, but not like any one exact style.
Now you have artisan sourdough bread, French baguettes, and fresh rye bread.
You have hoppy IPAs, malty brown ales and roasty stouts.
And tangy fresh farm cheese, 6 types of aged cheddar and live culture soft rind cheese that is bursting with flavor.
The same thing happened with chocolate. Before there was chocolate. Now there is raspberry, peaches and leather!! And you want it back.
I could easily tangent (again) to soap boxing about the state of modern food, but it isn’t constructive here. Instead let’s determine the common factor and use it to our advantage to make that chocolate you want.
Everyone it seems is all about making their chocolate unique. Celebrating how different they are from everyone else. And thus was born Single Origin Chocolate. And there is nothing wrong with that. Heck, it’s what I’ve worked over a decade on, bringing single origin, bean to bar, to you Makers out there.
But, yeah, sometimes you want something familiar. Something that tastes like childhood.
The answer, I believe, is homogenization. It is what gave bread, beer, cheese and chocolate their taste. And there is a much simpler word. It’s called blending.
It is both that simple and that complicated. And no, it is not sacrilegious. We make our own chocolate because we want to enjoy it, and if blending lets you enjoy it, more power to you. It is all about YOUR tastes and enjoyment after all. And while we are at it, maybe we can make it taste even better than you remember. Let’s talk blending.
First, why do I think this is an answer? Remember that there isn’t a chocolate molecule? It is our perception of multiple molecules, taken as a whole, that make us perceive the flavor of chocolate. The same is true of many (if not all) flavors. If you mix a ‘raspberry’ chocolate and a ‘leather’ chocolate the chances are very good you are NOT going to get ‘raspberry leather’ chocolate. You might (or might not – this is just a made up example) get ‘apple’ chocolate. One time I mixed banana and pineapple in a smoothie. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Except it tasted lite classic pink bubblegum!! Just like mixing yellow and blue, the resulting color is ‘yellow blue’. It’s is all its own ‘flavor’ and it is green. More on this in a bit.
There are 2 or 3 basic ways you can blend beans to make chocolate
1) You can blend various beans together before or after roasting.
2) You can blend the roasted beans and make chocolate.
3) Or you can make multiple single origin batches of chocolate and then blend them together
Each one has advantages and disadvantages and like pretty much all the rules here (there are none (except don’t add water to chocolate)) there is no wrong or right way to do it. Just your own personal way.
The easiest and most approachable way to make a blend is to mix your beans and then roast them. I would personally suggest at least 3 beans on up to 5. Two is barely a blend and more than 5 is really just diminishing returns (unless you just happen to have 3 oz of 10 beans left over, then blend away!).
The drawback to this method is that most beans don’t roast to exactly the same level. One may be a little under roasted, one just right and one over roasted. You can mitigate this by picking beans that are roughly the same size and of similar ‘type’. Basically, I would not mix a lot of Forastero with a lot of Criollo. You are kind of asking for trouble in this regard. But Criollo/Trinatario and Trinatario/Forastero should be fine. And again, there are not hard rules.
To alleviate the roasting issue, you can of course roast each bean ‘to perfection’ and then blend them and make chocolate.
The last option is nice for R&D and dialing in a blend but not something I would suggest initially. That amounts to making multiple batches of single origin chocolate and then blending them together in different proportions and tasting the results. In effect, this is what I do every year when I combine all my test samples throughout the year to make holiday truffles. The result, year in, year out, is chocolate tasting chocolate!
So, now you know how to blend and how many beans to put in. But what about the exact beans? Well, this is where I am merely a Novice. My personal take has been to take beans that I like the overall flavors of (Papua New Guinea and Ghana are two favorites of mine) and mix them with something that is sort of opposite. Papua New Guinea has non-acidity tamarind. Ghana is ‘chocolate’. At one point I tossed in some Trinchera (nutty and a little fruity) and Jamaican (rum and dark fruit). The result is a well balanced, not acidic, not fruity, not smoky, not sharp blend. It’s also call Alchemist’s Blend #1 – Balance.
The big thing to note here is that by blending, the ratio of chemical compounds that made ‘tamarind’ and ‘cashew’ and ‘dark fruit’ were disturbed so they no longer tasted like those things. They were not diluted, but actually changed from a perception standpoint. Just like mixing colors on a palette. What also happens though is a kind of neat alchemy. “Chocolate” comes through more often than note. Just like mixing ‘brown’ on a palette, there are lots of ways to get there, and the same goes for the chocolate flavor. The more you mix, the better chances are you will get the needed compounds together that you recognize as ‘chocolate’. And really, it isn’t so surprising. We learned this flavor as chocolate because the majority of chocolate we grew up with were blends – blends instigated to keep a consistent chocolate flavor even though crops and origins changed.
Acidity, astringency and bitterness are not flavors though. Unlike flavors, these can be diluted and are therefore pretty straight forward. If you use nothing but high acid beans, your result will be high acid. The same with bitterness and astringency. But it is worth noting that these things are not necessarily linear. Quite often, you can cut a bitter (or astringent or acid) component by 1/3 and find it is only half as strong as it was.
Finally, and this is only my own personal recommendation, get outside your comfort level. I am not a bright, fruity chocolate fan – so it is good to toss in at least some percentage of bright and fruity. Or if you want a brighter chocolate ‘chocolate’, then go with a lot of high end flavors (Madagascar, Rizek, Peru) but get at least one base note in there for contrast and complexity (like Ghana, Ivory Coast or Bolivia). I’m often blown away buy certain paintings I see that look so real, but when you really look at them have these vibrant and colors you would never see in real life. But the whole is more ‘real’ feeling than if it was just monotone.
So, suggestions for blending.
1) Mix 3-5 beans of similar size and type and that you like in equal proportions.
2) Roast them together.
3) Mix in at least one ‘outlyer’ flavor
4) Have fun – it’s chocolate for goodness sakes.
Single origin is good, but blending is fine, and making what you enjoy is what it is ALL about.
Oh, and don’t take yourself TOO seriously. Otherwise, this might happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=TBb9O-aW4zI
Hrm….custom bean by bean hand select blend….only $499/lb…
The new crop of 2015 Belize is in. Organic and Fair trade. Full of juicy blackberry this time. At this writing, half is already gone so act fast and stock up if you want it. Although La Red is gone for now, we now have two new beans from the Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic Rizek - Fair Trade /Organic - It's been a couple years since we last had this. Dark fruits like plum and fig, There are also hints of holiday spice particularly cardamom and cinnamon.
Dominican Republic Eden O Organic - This is a elegant bean and brand new in our offerings. There is a fruity tang of kiwi and passion fruit. Also the pretty classic light leather of the Dominican Republic. But everything here is soft and balanced.
The new crop of Organic Bolivia will be in next week, plus a great new smaller lot of Papua New Guinea.. In the mean time, don't miss out on the last of last year's crop of Organic Bolivia - we were able to get one last bag.
