Just yesterday I completed an exercise in trying four different cocoa beans by taking off the shell, grinding the nibs (each style individually), and then focused on both the smells (in whole bean form, and then after I ground the nibs in my clean, coffee grinder), and tastes of each sample. Then I tried each sample with a touch of regular sugar. (Please note that you wouldn't want to do this with beans that look moldy, or damaged).
This first pic is of the Porcelana beans in whole form.
Venezuela Porcelana 2015
This bean had practically zero acidity, bitterness, or astringency. The whole bean had a touch of vinegar on the nose, cocoa, minimal fruity, and minimal spicy notes. The nose once the nibs were ground up was lots of cocoa, caramel, buttery, sweet, earthy. When I tried the grounds with the sugar it stayed cocoa powder, and earthy, but a little astringency came out. This was easy to chew due to the flavors, and lack of unpleasant tastes. Mild.
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Tanzania Kokoa Kamili 2015
The raw beans had a high cocoa, and fruity smell, with a hint of spice. The taste of the ground up nibs was fairly bitter, and some acidity noted. The aroma of the ground nibs was high in cocoa, and very high in fresh fruit, mildly buttery, and a bit of sweetness. When I tried this with the sugar the sugar masked the flavor a lot, it was less acidic, rather plan tasting.
Mexican Chiapas 2015
The raw beans smelled lightly nutty, and fairly spicy. The taste had a lot of bitterness, and some vegetal notes. There was also some umami, and some acidity/sour smells to the ground nibs. When I tried it with the sugar there was more of a malty taste, and it was less bitter. This one was the toughest one to chew due to the flavors, and bitterness to start.
Bolivia Criollo/Trinitario 2015
The raw beans smelled slightly of vinegar, and earth, a bit of cocoa. The ground up nibs had mild acidity. and barely any bitterness, nor astringency. The taste was high in cocoa powder, and a tiny bit of nut, spice, and earth. When tried with the sugar I con't to get the cocoa notes, and overall the flavors stayed the same. This, and the Porcelana were the two most pleasant to taste in ground up form. Mild.
I was surprised at how much trying a bit of sugar with the ground nib samples really changed the flavor. On 3 of these 4 samples the sugar made a huge difference.
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Hungry for more chocolate info? Then check out my other blog:
http://darkmattersfinechocolatereviews.blogspot.com/
To order a 4 pack sample of cocoa beans check out:
http://shop.chocolatealchemy.com/collections/cocoa-beans/products/cocoa-bean-sampler-pack
See you next time!!!
Victoria Cooksey
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