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Post by lilypa on Jun 6, 2013 14:16:49 GMT -5
Hey All,
Wasn't really sure of a good title for this thread.
Have you ever encountered beans post-roast that had the germination "hole on top" that wasn't obvious to you during pre-roast sorting? If so, do you sort those beans out prior to refining?
Just encountered this the other day. I'm pretty certain I had removed all of the obviously germinated beans prior to roasting and then I found a few of these beans after roasting. Weird. (I only make 2-5 lb batches currently, so I try to diligently hand-sort, or at least I thought I had been, all of my raw beans.)
Were these partially-germinated beans? If so, I'm wondering if their flavor may be compromised by the germination process as well.
Cheers, Dave
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Post by Brad on Jun 6, 2013 16:04:54 GMT -5
A few beans aren't going to make any difference in the taste of your chocolate. Some of the best chocolate makers in the world make their amazing chocolate in batches of thousands of lbs. There is no way they can hand sort that much. As a result, the percentage of "undesireable" beans is much higher yet the flavour is well masked by the rest of them.
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Post by lilypa on Jun 6, 2013 17:40:55 GMT -5
Good point Brad. Do you think those beans are partially-germinated, such that I wouldn't have noticed them during hand sorting pre-roast?
Might say 10 - 20 of these beans still have a significant effect on a small batch like 2 lbs?
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Post by Brad on Jun 7, 2013 0:38:41 GMT -5
Well, there are about 900 beans in 2lbs, so 20 beans would be about 2 percent by weight.
Nope. I don't think you would notice them at all. I know of chocolatiers who have much higher shell content than 2% and shell is worse than germinated beans. Their chocolate tastes just fine to me, so in my opinion I would say you're just fine.
Cheers
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Post by lilypa on Jun 7, 2013 12:22:49 GMT -5
How does the shell (husk) impact chocolate flavor? More astringent, more bitter, more I've eaten straight roasted husk before. It doesn't really taste like much to me, mostly just fibrous and cardboard-like (definitely doesn't taste like chicken ). I think germinated beans taste a lot more unpleasant. Could it be that the flavor imparted by husk is so much more different than the flavor imparted by germinated beans relative to the flavor of good beans that husk has a greater impact on chocolate flavor? Kind of an apples vs oranges thing where you have a fresh Fuji apple, an old Fuji apple and a Valencia orange? By itself, the Valencia tastes good, but mixed with the Fuji apples it's kinda off-putting.
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