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Post by ning1 on Oct 3, 2016 21:32:47 GMT -5
I run a small batch chocolate making business with the intention to drive malaysian bean origin to better quality. Most folks have not tasted Malaysian origin beans and those who have rightfully have not much of a regard for it. This reflects the challenge I've been facing for years to work with farmers and finally am making some progress. So I now own a small farm and will be working through a foundation to rehab trees and plant new ones with 50 families of indigenous people in the Malaysian Peninsula.
I'm looking for scientific methods or lab processes to indicate flavor profile that are available to planters and farmers.
Planting for yield and resistance is the practice up till recently and needs to change for the sake of fine flavor chocolate.
I'm writing to anyone I know to find the science behind DNA selection for flavor. Resistance and yield are very well documented in each clone but other than organoleptic profiles, I'm not clear how to quantify flavor.
Taste profiling or organoleptic tests with dried beans is widely practised but I would like to know if there are other approaches that gives a more accurate indication of flavor of planting material.
I would like to start this thread for any resources that would empower planting decisions. This would greatly help me make propagation decisions.
Any suggestions would be helpful!
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Post by Sebastian on Oct 4, 2016 9:16:29 GMT -5
www.cacaogenomedb.orgThis is a very scientific approach to identifying precisely which genes contribute to which flavor attributes in cocoa. Due to the highly technical nature of the work, unless you speak the language it may not make sense to you. Remember that genetics only contributes approximately 50% of the flavor profile, the other half is due to post harvest practices and growing conditions. If you don't speak the language, i'd also advise to not ask others to interpret for you (it'll likely just frustrate them, as it's a bit like giving someone the Bible printed in Klingon and having them ask you to summarize it for them by teaching them Klingon first. It's an easy question to ask, but incredibly difficult to do). If you're looking for something less technical, there's a ton of resources. Many growing countries have cocoa technical centers that all have a perspective on which clone is the 'best', but you'll find that often their perspective is peppered heavily with opinion stemming from nationalistic pride (our clones are better than their clones!). There will be a low degree of technical understanding of why a given clone has a given flavor (or even if it consistently does), but you can still find them to be an interesting resource.
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Post by ning1 on Oct 21, 2016 1:56:18 GMT -5
Sebastian Wow, thanks for sharing, makes me want to take a course just in order to understand the gene works. My thoughts are there has to be a more direct connection, for example, of polyphenolic substances, or reducing sugars to flavor. When fresh beans are tested for such substances, the results will give an indication of flavor, and will further suggest a more scientific approach to determining the result of different fermentation methods. Some times the suggested fermentation duration are prescribed without much justification beyond achieving brown bean, which is itself not correlated to flavor. Let me know if i'm missing a point.
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