Problem: flat flavor and smell

[federico]

Hi everyone! I need your help
I'm making home chocolate for 8 months, i tests a lot of beans and different roasting and refining profiles, now i produce 3 kind of chocolate i generally like, but..
i did taste my chocolate to two different categories of taster: bean to bar expert (chocolate taster and people who work in bean to bar world) and common people (friends, unknown people, ecc..) I have 2 different results.
common people love my chocolate and ask me more tablets, expert people said me my chocolate is without flavors and smell, it is "flat" (they said me it is a good chocolate, but with not particular flavors, a good texture but with no emotions)
so, i need to understand were is my problem: I think it could be in roasting technique, maybe i roast beans for a too long time and this is why all flavors come out. What do you think about?
for example, for my esmeralda 80% tab i roasted the beans in my kitchen oven 30' at 150°C fan oven with door slightly open + 10' cool down oven off with door open
can you help me?
I don't think it is a beans problem because i have this problem for all beans i used..
thx a lot!
federico

[Ben]

Hi Frederico. Roasting at 1 temp is probably not going to get the best flavors out of any particular bean. Do you know what the final bean temperature is?

John (the Chocolate Alchemist) has a series of Ask The Alchemist posts all about roasting that I'd highly suggest you take a look at. They start at ATA #200 or so, if I remember correctly. The basic idea is that cocoa beans have different phases during roasting, and how the beans go through those phases greatly impacts the final flavor. By controlling your roast profile, you can have a lot of control over the flavor of the beans.

Those ATA posts will give you a lot of information and insight into what's going on as you roast.

On a side note, I'd suggest to actively cool the beans after roasting. To get repeatable flavor, you need to control as many variables as possible. Beans in a hot oven--even with the door open--are going to continue roasting for a while.

I hope this helps!

[mark]

Hi Frederico

Ben makes a lot of good points (as always). Definitely go and read those ATA posts on roasting. If you really want to improve your roasting, I'd recommend you ditch the oven roasting and get yourself a Behmor drum roaster. You can then add a temperature probe to that and start using the techniques John wrote about in those ATA posts. You'll be able to dial in a good roast very quickly without wasting a lot of time and beans in the process.

[Brad]

Federico,

A couple of observations here:
1. Roasting your cocoa in a convection oven is just fine. There is no need to go buy a drum roaster or anything of the sort. Some people may argue this, but I have grown my business since 2008 into one of the largest bean to bar operations in North America, and we roasted in convection ovens for many years. I think I'm very qualified to tell you this. My facility is now scaled up to make 1500kg of chocolate per day (we have a large roaster for this volume), but we still use convection ovens for smaller batches.
2. Your roasting temperature sounds about right.
3. How fruity and acidic are your beans to start with? If they are older, or of poor quality or over fermented, they will have lost a lot of the high notes that "experts" (and I use that term loosely) have learned to enjoy with small batch chocolate.
4. Who's paying you for your chocolate and keeping your lights on - the experts or your customers? If your customers are buying it and liking it and referring friends who are also buying it and liking it, then who are the experts to tell you that you need to change? Business is about making money, and the foundation of that is to find out who your customers are, and what they want, then give it to them. Just because an "expert" doesn't care for your chocolate doesn't make what you're doing wrong. Milton Hershey died a very content and wealthy man and I don't know of a single "expert" out there who likes the chocolate they have made.

Cheers
Brad
www.Choklat.com

[mark]

Brad makes a good point regarding experts vs customers. One of our best selling bars is the one that most experts don't find very appealing. It's also personally my least favourite bar, but hey our customers clearly like it. 😊