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Post by lilypa on Feb 20, 2013 0:25:58 GMT -5
I've read that slaty beans are due to under-fermentation and considered bad (to be sorted out).
Does the term slaty refer to a grayish-white color of the nib or on the husk? The papers I read weren't very clear about that. They mentioned doing a "cut" test which lead me to believe slaty was referring to the nibs. However, in sorting my beans, I've noticed many a time beans with a grayish-white hue on the husk whereas the majority of the beans had reddish-brown husks.
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Post by lilypa on Feb 24, 2013 0:52:17 GMT -5
I've attached a photo of what I'm referring. I've sorted a batch of beans, the majority being reddish-brown, some looking mostly black, and some with a grayish-white hue on the husk. Are the beans with the grayish-white husks "slaty" beans, which should be thrown out? Are they actually beans that are starting to mold? Or is that grayish-white hue perfectly natural and occurs on some beans? Basically, WHY are some of the beans colored this way? Why also are some of the beans nearly black in color? I did a quick poor man's cut test on three beans, one of each of the three colors. The nib inside on all three was deep brown, which leads me to believe that they're all fine. Anyone willing to explain these husk colors? Attachments:
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gap
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Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Feb 24, 2013 5:41:04 GMT -5
OK - I'm purely guessing and would like to know the correct answer myself- because I have been wondering the exact same thing.
For what it's worth, I've assumed it is mould growing on the outside of the shell. I've seen several references saying that mould on the outside of the shell is fine as the shell is discarded and mould on the outside doesn't indicate mould in the nibs (which would be bad for making chocolate). Therefore I've been using these beans. I have no idea if this is correct, but it's the best I can offer up.
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 24, 2013 13:04:51 GMT -5
It's pretty difficult to predict the results of a cut test based on the external appearance of the cocoa bean.
It's also pretty difficult for most folks to tell much of the history of the bean from looking at it's external appearance alone. However, do it long enough, combined with how it smells and how it breaks and what it looks like on the inside, and you can tell a bit about it's history with some accuracy.
From the photo alone, i'd say the bulk of your beans were fermented for 4-5 days, and dried in conditions that weren't great. Some of them don't appear to be very fermented at all, so i think you've got a distribution there. The whitish beans on the upper right corner are likely quite fine for use, and the whiteness is probably just yeast. These are beans that were probably on the edges of the fermentation as well as the drying.
The black ones i'd not use. They're probably quite old and perhaps have started rotting. They're likely leftovers from previous fermentations that didn't get scooped up.
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Feb 24, 2013 16:27:33 GMT -5
Sebastian - thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
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Post by lilypa on Feb 24, 2013 17:23:54 GMT -5
Thank you Sebastian! Your feedback is really appreciated! Thanks to you Gap for increasing the interest in this thread!
These beans were sort of freebies from a 2011 crop, so they're getting old. I actually did throw away the black beans and kept the whitish ones last night (after tasting a couple of them).
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Post by lilypa on Nov 15, 2014 16:22:55 GMT -5
Hey All,
I recently obtained a copy of "Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use" 4th ed. edited by Stephen T. Beckett and found the answer to my question. I thought I'd share with everyone. From:
Page 20 under section 2.3.1 Fermentation: "If the fresh beans are dried without any fermentation, then the nib will be a slaty, grey colour rather than the brown or purple-brown colour of fermented dried cocoa beans. Chocolate made entirely from slaty, unfermented beans tastes very bitter and astringent with little apparent chocolate flavour: it also has a greyish brown appearance."
Page 38 under section 2.5.3 Cocoa beans: sampling and the 'cut test': "Slaty beans are beans in which more than 50% of the cotyledon is grey or slaty in colour. These beans have not undergone fermentation and they have a low level of cocoa flavour with high levels of astringency."
Basically, same thing said two ways...they're unfermented beans.
Cheers, Dave
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Post by kevin on Nov 16, 2014 16:40:49 GMT -5
Thanks for this information. In my experience I have had completely unfermented beans from Dominican Republic and after I roasted them they had a noncomplex flavor but definitely tasted like chocolate. They had pretty good cocoa flavor. Can anyone explain this for me in light of Beckett's description?
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Post by Sebastian on Nov 16, 2014 17:03:48 GMT -5
If they had good chocolate flavor, they were fermented. You may have been told they weren't, but if so, that simply wasn't true.
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