Haiti Beans

[kchiz]

Hi
I've got some Haiti beans and I have made some truly horrible chocolate with them.  They have a good chocolate taste then an astringent just sucked a lemon taste.  I've tried two roast profiles in the oven. 180c start then down to 130c in 5 min increments until brownie smell and also a straight 140c for 20mins.  The beans came in a group of samples, but not from your site, though I believe they are the same harvest and other's have reported great success.  I thought it might have been just me, but my husband tried it and I got a resounding "that is disgusting".  Th Assuming that the beans themselves were OK, is it the roasting and how do you deal with astringency?  More roasting, less, different temperature profiles?

thanks
Kim

[bmikiten]

Just a thought - I had a similar experience with beans a friend gave me from Mexico and it turned out to be bad fermentation. It didn't matter what I did on the roasting - it couldn't be fixed.

Brian

[Sebastian]

Generally speaking, Haitian beans are severely underfermented (or not fermented at all). That's very difficult to fix.

[kchiz]

Thank you. I thought that, but the source was so reputable I figured it must be me. The beans were small and flat and really hard to winnow as the husk just wouldn't come off. Should have figured it.

[joetlnf]

There's a book I'm reading: "Cocoa and chocolate their chemistry and manufacture" by Robert Whymper, 2nd edition, published in 1921. You can download it and read it for free on Google Play.

On pages 130-131 he writes:
"Another practice, not uncommon with manufacturers, is to submit the beans to a post-fermentation process, by soaking the beans in water for forty-eight hours and drying off at 45deg C, an operation which, in the case of unfermented beans with gray and unattractive shells and with a violet and bitter interior, is said to improve greatly the appearance of the bean and the colour and flavour of the kernel."

So, if you're desperate, maybe it's worth trying this with a portion of your beans prior to roasting.

[Sebastian]

I'd say that practice is VERY uncommon actually. I've only seen one place in the world that's done that (they call it bean washing), and it's certainly not done on a commercial scale. That practice is really done to attempt to either remove the sugars prior to fermentation, or try to 'clean up' the appearance of the beans after they've been dried. While i've never done the work to know the answer definitively of would it impact color/flavor of the nib - i'd not expect it to do either, as all the cellular walls are still intact - meaning all the fat is still present, which is a very good barrier against water.

[joetlnf]

Thanks, Sebastian. I'd be interested to hear your take on the rest of the book, if you get the chance to read it. Lots of stuff on treatment and sorting of beans (including removing the germ), I wonder how much of it is still common practice

[joetlnf]

I've found a second reference to this practice in "The Manufacture of Cacao and other chocolate preparations" by Paul Zipperer (2nd Edition, published 1902). Also freely available for download. See p. 101.
Here, the author calls the 2-day soaking the "after-fermentation" and recommends the same low-temp drying process (40-50deg C).

[joetlnf]

I was hoping to read something a bit more recent that references this “after-fermentation” practice (aka secondary fermentation, postfermentation, Behelfsfermentation), and found “Advances in Food Research” vol 8, pp. 277-278 (1958, chapter written by P. A. Roelofsen). If you Google it, you can read this section (yes, for free!). Or just download it here: isl-dl.com/downloadfile/104260

He cites several sources, including a patent that was issued in 1951 to Kempf and Murer (General Foods Corp), US 2558854 A, which can be read in its entirety online. In the patent, they call this a “curing” process and use it on completely unfermented beans. They provide some experimental results for their curing using beans from different origins, including some from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Here’s an interesting quote regarding the Haitian bean: “Liquor A was further processed into a finished piece of sweet chocolate which was considered excellent eating. On the other hand, the liquors obtained from tropically processed Haiti cacao are known for their inferior quality. Finished chocolate from these liquors without conching and blending with others is highly unpleasant to the taste.”

Go figure.