benb
Neophyte
Posts: 8
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Post by benb on Dec 31, 2020 17:45:47 GMT -5
Hi, would appreciate your help.
I've had a few attempts of making chocolate with my premiere refiner, but I'm not really happy with the taste. It has a sour aftertaste, and I don't find the taste to be too rich as in high-quality chocolate I have.
At first I thought it was the beans or roasting, so I tried ordering a few different types of already roasted nibs to try and rule these factors out. All of them have this aftertaste. The last two I tried were Colombia - Tumaco 2020 and Dominican Republic Zorzal Direct trade Organic 2019.
Here's what I'm doing - I mix 85% nibs and 15% sugar and grind for 72 hours, then temper with mycryo. The chocolate is well tempered - it snaps and doesn't bloom, so this shouldn't be an issue.
I've noticed that this aftertaste is less severe when taking the chocolate out after 72 hours than 24 hours, but I'm not sure more hours will help. Am I doing something wrong? Should I add cacao butter? Grind more time? Roast the nibs myself?
Thanks a lot!
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Post by Chip on Jan 3, 2021 16:02:13 GMT -5
benb , That's 85% chocolate, which is really dark. You should try to make a small batch at 65% or lighter and see if you still have the bitterness/aftertaste.
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 7, 2021 16:22:58 GMT -5
Your sourness is almost certainly the result of how the beans were fermented. Do they smell like vinegar?
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benb
Neophyte
Posts: 8
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Post by benb on Jan 9, 2021 15:07:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies! I've tried again with different beans: Colombia - Sierra Nevada 2017, this time making it with 80% nibs, 20% sugar, refining for around 72 hours. It is a bit better than before, but still has some sour after taste.
Since this happens for me with multiple types of beans, I'm thinking there's probably another reason... Also I didn't notice that the beans smell like vinegar - even when tasting it right after refining and before tempering, I did not notice any sourness.
Any other ideas? Maybe adding cocoa butter? Or trying to "conch" by raising the temperature in the refiner for some time?
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 10, 2021 10:34:45 GMT -5
Then i suspect the sourness you're getting is due to lactic acid. There are two types of acids taht can be formed durin gfermentation - volatile and non-volatile. If it smelled/tasted like vinegar during processing - then i'd say you have a better chance of 'fixing' it on your end. Since you can't smell vinegar - it's a non-volatile acid - likely lactic - which is going to be hard to process out. Non-volatile acids won't go away no matter how long you conch, or how high you raise your temperature. The only way to deal with them is to neutralize them. You can try adding 1% baking soda to your nib grinding stage (baking soda's an alkali that will neutralize acids - or at least some of them - if they're present) to see if that helps.
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benb
Neophyte
Posts: 8
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Post by benb on Jan 12, 2021 13:37:25 GMT -5
Thanks. I'll try that, although it's still seems weird to me that all these different beans would produce the same problem.
Although, now that I think about it - I asked a friend to bring me the beans from the US to avoid the shipping cost, and due to the covid situation it took a few months for it to get here. In the meanwhile, as I've just learned, he kept it in a wine refrigerator. Couldn't that explain the acidity - since it was kept in a humid place?
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Post by Thomas on Jan 12, 2021 14:55:38 GMT -5
Based on your description, it seems that all these chocolates have a few things in common. The melanger, the sugar, and the mycryo. It's hard to think that all of different beans you have used will create a sour taste. If the chocolate has a sour taste after running in the melanger, then it's either the melanger or sugar. I doubt the sugar is sour so that leaves the melanger. How are you cleaning the melanger?
Just looking at this from a different perspective.
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 12, 2021 19:38:19 GMT -5
It's not strange at all. Every cocoa bean on the plant has the potential to become sour if the fermenter doesn't know what they're doing. And very few fermenters have a firm grasp on what it is they're doing. This is not surprising at all I'm afraid.
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benb
Neophyte
Posts: 8
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Post by benb on Jan 13, 2021 1:10:49 GMT -5
What do you think about the wine refrigerator? Could that be the reason?
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 15, 2021 10:17:01 GMT -5
Not unless your wine refrigerator is spraying the bars with an acid of some sort 8) It's pretty unlikely.
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