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Cacao Beans
at Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:20:11 GMT in >,
(Mark Thorson) wrote :
>I bought some whole cacao beans today
>in a Mexican-food supermarket. The beans
>themselves are from El Salvador.
>
>I assume these are fermented and dried, but
>not roasted. They are easily chewed, with
>a nice texture. They have a strong and pleasant
>chocolate taste.
>
>The directions on the package say to toast
>and peel the beans, add cinnamon, and grind
>them, with about 1 tablespoon of the ground
>material per cup of boiled water.
>
>I'm surprised at the variation in the size of the
>beans and color. Most are a light brown,
>but some are almost black, with a wide range
>of color between those extremes.
>
The blackest ones are likely to be Forasteros, especially if they have a
purplish-black tone. It's probable you have a mix of various types of
beans, although without the pods to identify them, it's going to be
difficult to tell if there are Criollos or Trinitarios mixed in. Colour
variation, btw, is very typical. A medium, mahogany-brown is ideal.
--
Alex Rast
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
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