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Dec 26, 2009, 1:49pm

Chocolate Alchemy ForumThe Art and Science of Homemade Chocolate :: Chocolate Making :: Cocoa Beans :: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans

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Topic: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans (Read 148 times)

mangiraikos
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Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Thread Started on Sept 13, 2009, 7:04pm »

I've recieved some Papua New Guinean beans over week and started a batch of dark. The aroma is great and everything but the beans after roasted was very very sour. And as feared, today after 3 days of grinding the sour taste is just too overpowering.
And no it is not a, "Its ok but I taste a hint of sourness in it."
Rather it is a, "Where did you get that sour bomb?"
Can't believe that after so much work in getting these beans, all it taste is like one of those sour candies that my 'eat anything cousin' wont even touch.

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reelchemist
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #1 on Sept 13, 2009, 10:08pm »

What sort of roasting profile did you use, what sort of chocolate formulation did you use? Sounds like under roasting and a dark chocolate formulation. I have worked with these and found them fine. I found that you need to roast them like a Ghana or Ivory Coast or Dominican Republic not because of the astringency but because the beans are so big - they take longer to roast. I did under roast a Mexico once and it was very sour, citrusy, I noted that you can mellow it out by formulating with more cocoa butter and sugar.

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mangiraikos
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #2 on Sept 13, 2009, 11:09pm »

I used the Behmor to roast my beans.
1000g at P1 for 19 min.
The smell was what I thought (my conviction had deteriorated) was at a right roast.
But after the roast, I tasted it and was amazed by the sourness of the nib.
While grinding (which i did for 72 hrs), I reroasted a smaller sample over a live fire but the sourness did not go away with longer heat exposure.
Maybe I¡¯ll go and reroast a smaller sample and see how the beans turn out.
One thing though. The aroma is just breathtaking. But because of the sourness the smell just gets buried.

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Sebastian
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #3 on Sept 14, 2009, 5:21am »

You are unlikely to make that sourness go away (if you've got a the ability to create a thin film and pull a strong vacuum on it, perhaps. Of if you add a small amount of an alkali). The beans are that sour as a result of how they were treated before they even got to you. Unfortunately, you inherited that trait...

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Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces.

redstar
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #4 on Sept 14, 2009, 6:34am »

I had a similar thing with some Guatemalan beans - all I could do was make milk chocolate. The protein in the milk powder cancels out the sourness (there is a proper chemical explanation but I'm too dumb to recall it) and the end result was very tasty indeed. Worth a try if it's inedible as a dark?

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itsallaroundyou
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #5 on Sept 14, 2009, 9:39am »

i just finished up my batch of papua new guinea beans and found the same super sour traits with my 70% dark, but in my 60% (with added cocoa butter and 48 hr refining) that the flavors came to a reasonably happy balance. the sour was still prominent, but the smokiness and the other chocolate flavors had their turn too during the course of tasting it. letting it sit for a few days helped mellow the flavor too....

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mangiraikos
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #6 on Sept 15, 2009, 7:32pm »

Thanks guys.
The beans that I got were from my friend's exporting company.
We went to the same middle/highschool when my parents were missionaries in PNG from 1986-2002.
It nags me cuz the beans from the main land (yes it is an island country but they call the bigger island the main land ^^) that I was able to get my hands on were not at all sour. But the ones from the New Briton Island where my friend is running his business is sour.
I've sent a sample of his sample back with a sample of the 'main land' chocolate and his 'island' chocolate.
So I hope he and I can find some answers.

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redstar
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #7 on Sept 16, 2009, 2:08am »

My money is on fermentation, or lack thereof.

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Alchemist
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Alchemist John

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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #8 on Sept 16, 2009, 6:45am »

Whoa, I was all ready to jump in until the end here when I see they are not the PNG lot I sold. I just could not work out how they were coming out so sour for you.

If you have more beans, you could try the very coolest longest setting on the Behmor. P5 and maximize the time after you start. Maybe drop the amount to 1.8 kg. You don't want them burned of course, but fully roasted.

Then again, there is a very good chance Sebastian and others are right and the fermentation is off and nothing you do will help.

But consider it a lesson learned. If it is that sour out of the roaster, stop right there.

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Alchemist John
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mangiraikos
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #9 on Sept 25, 2009, 3:43am »

Yeah I have put on a order from a different supplier or samples.
Thanks ya'll ^^

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dhschreiber
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Re: Sour Papua New Guinea Beans
« Reply #10 on Nov 1, 2009, 2:16am »

I _did_ buy the PNG beans from Chocolate Alchemy, and the smell was great and intense. After roasting I smelled tobacco, molasses and apple cider vinegar. The nib was sour but not unpalatable. But after just finishing a batch of 75% dark PNG chocolate, I can tell you that this is sour sour stuff! While grinding, I thought it was a really intense red fruit, but the finished chocolate tastes like mangiraikos says, some kind of chemical super sour that is enough to clear out your sinuses... The dark side of fermentation, I suppose

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