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Post by foodofthegods on Jan 1, 2007 17:23:39 GMT -5
I got some new beans today from a mayan youth who works for me. He brought them from his uncle's farm near the southern Belize-Guatamalan border. They look completely different from the beans I have been using. In fact thay are so dark I thought they must be roasted already. Plus, They were easier to crack and remove the hull. Plus the taste was nutty with little raw flavor. I asked Eustacio if they were roasted and he said no just fermented and sun dried.
The ones I am used to are from southern Belize , Great Falls area. I have only used beans from one farm. ( Just now making my 15th batch). They are reddish brown with tough hulls and have a strong raw taste before roasting.
Obviously, something is different. These new beans seem much drier. Does this mean less roasting time? They also seem smaller on average than the beans I have been using. Plus the raw taste I have been checking for, to tell when they are done, is absent. I asked about the variety and Eustacio said it was Mayan Gold. I am guessing that is a local name.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated, Especially on the roasting. I took about 10 tries at roasting the first beans before I was happy. I guess I will try a lighter roast at first.
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Post by Alchemist on Jan 1, 2007 21:48:28 GMT -5
Without seeing them I could not hazard a guess at the actual variety, but the discription is not unlike the Cuyagua I had. It has to do with a very good even fermentation, even complete drying and possibly some nice Criollo stock in its history. Also sounds similar to a Tabasco bean I have been experimenting with.
As for roasting, mostly you are looking at extra drying. The smaller size will help. If you are oven roasting, I would go 250-260 F for 20-25 minutes. That will not over roast them and should bring out the flavor nicely.
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Post by foodofthegods on Jan 2, 2007 22:24:55 GMT -5
Thanks for the info. I showed them to a Mayan cocao grower and he first thought they were roasted also. But on closer examination he agreed they were just a variety or fermentation he had never seen before.
I can't try them for a few days but as soon as I can I will try a couple of roasts and see how they taste.
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Post by foodofthegods on Jan 8, 2007 17:43:56 GMT -5
I roasted some of these beans at lower temps as you suggested and got a tasty nib. Strangely, there was no brownie smell at all. They smelled like baking bread. When I put them in the Santha for a while the smell turned musty. The liquor tastes like chocolate with a strong note of mold. Bummer. Looked around at cocao and mold and found an FDA procedure manual for checking cocao beans for insect and mold. See it here www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/mpm-4.html I opened up 100 beans with my magnifying glasses on (2.5x). I found traces of mold in 2, maybe three beans. None of the beans would have qualified to be rejected by FDA standards. It seems unlikely that amount of mold could have spoiled my batch. Perhaps one really bad bean spoiled the whole pound of liquor. Or maybe this variety just has a strong mold like flavor. I winowed by hand with a blow drier so I had a good look at the nibs. I did see one nib with white on it and I threw it away. However, the nibs certainly were not visibly contaminated with mold or I would have noticed. How about it. I am a real novice. Can one or two beans spoil the batch. Anyone had mold problem?
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