Second roasting?

[bmikiten]

I was sent some beans from a friend in Chiapas Mexico and produced the first bars a few days ago. I noticed that there was an astringency in the chocolate that I have assumed to be from an under-roasting on his part. The overall taste is good but this does affect the final product. He is sending me 10 more lbs which he also roasted and I'm wondering if I can re-roast them for a bit when they show up here to help with this issue. 

Second question - What is the (flavor/texture) result of poor winnowing? If too many shells are left in does this affect taste? The chocolate is smooth, tempered well, etc. 

Thanks

Brian

[Brad]

Brian;

From my experience, a lot of the astringency comes from the bean not being properly fermented. Under-roasting would be very bright, fruity notes, and significant acidity, with fewer chocolate undertones. Remember, the chocolate flavour develops as a result of roasting.

With respect to roasting a second time, I can tell you definitively, YES you can do it. What I recommend though, is that you first crack and fan your beans, and then roast the nibs. The reason is that you will get more surface area coverage by roasting this way - especially because you don't want to do it at a high temperature, or for as long as the initial roast. I have had best results at around 300 degrees F, for half of the original roast time for nibs a second time around. The result I experienced was an AMAZING fruity, deep rich chocolate flavour (I did it with some Chuao nibs while trying to make a chocolate infused coffee). The double roasted nibs would make an amazing chocolate. However the time and attention to this process isn't practical from a commercial sense.

Poor winnowing doesn't affect the taste that much. Some people are anal about getting every piece of shell out, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. It all gets ground up anyway, and just for fun I tried whole bean (shell and all) chocolate a couple of times and couldn't notice too much of a difference in taste. I don't recommend this though, for other reasons.

Cheers
Brad
www.Choklat.com

[bmikiten]

Brad -

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to try that and also get with my guy and find out what he did for the fermentation process. It is a very small farm so I'm not sure how controlled their processes are at that level. I'm very pleased with the bar flavor which improves daily but I'd like to get a handle on the astringency issue.

Brian