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Post by Brad on Apr 19, 2008 21:01:45 GMT -5
Hey everyone,
This is my first post regarding a small amount of Porcelana cocoa I was lucky enough to acquire for the start up of my new shop in July.
I'm sampling the beans right now (a 70% dark), and the taste is very different than ANY cocoa I've had yet. The beans have been in the refiner for about 5 hours, and here are my observations:
1. The more it grinds, the lighter the chocolate gets. Right now, it's the color of a very light milk chocolate, yet there's no milk product and 40% liquor in the recipe. 2. The taste is incredible! I personally like a very fruity flavoured chocolate, and this is definitely fruity. The closest "laymans" terms I can think of is that of eating a "Turkish Delight", except this is 100% dark chocolate. I taste cherry, blackberry, and something else very fruity. Wow. I'm going to get fat. 3. There's virtually NO bitterness (and we're only at the 5 hour mark). 4. There's still a distinct sour note - almost like vinegar, when I first taste it. I was worried at first, however after reading other reports of Porcelana, that was a common thread too among almost all of the others. Maybe I'm not using the right terms to describe the note, but in a nutshell (keep in mind that it's only been refining/conching for 5 hours!), when I taste it, it almost clears my sinuses a bit so I can truly enjoy the fruitiness!
I'm very excited to see what it's going to be like once the refining is complete.
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Post by Brad on Apr 20, 2008 14:16:23 GMT -5
First test batch is complete.
It's by far the fruitiest chocolate I've ever tasted. However with a very light roast there are tannins that are present. Looking at other Porcelana bars, I see they are very dark, which could be indicative of a heavier roast of the beans.
I'm going to try that today and do another test batch. A light roast definitely won't do for these.
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Post by Howard on Jun 13, 2008 11:01:50 GMT -5
Palate calibration: Have you tried John's Tabasco beans? I've found them very fruity. How do these Porcelana compare?
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Post by Brad on Jun 13, 2008 11:40:57 GMT -5
I haven't tried the Tobasco.
Sorry I couldn't tell you.
what I can tell you however is that of ALL the cacau I've tasted, Porcelana is hands down completely different.
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