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at Tue, 06 Dec 2005 01:30:50 GMT in >,
(Eddie Grove) wrote :

>
>I think I remember Alex making comments about disliking the overly
>fruity nature of Scharffenberger chocolate, and perhaps blaming the
>roast.
>
>I took their factory tour, and they explained what is going on. They
>arrange with the farmers to ferment the fruit with the seeds in it.

This is a fairly common process and isn't unique to Scharffen Berger
TTBOMK. In addition to their particular ferment choice, there is also the
roasting choice, because with a dark roast any fruitiness is roasted out
anyway.

>This process facilitates some fruit flavors permeating the seeds
>before the roast is ever done.

Actually, flavour characteristics come from a number of aspects. There is
the bean type, first of all, then the ferment (how long and in what
conditions), then there is the roast, and then there is conching. For
instance, a Maracaibo bean isn't going to taste very fruity no matter what
you do to it. Very short ferments tend to lead to a hint of something
grassy and vegetal, a certain pungency as well. So again this will be less
fruity, while again at the high end of the ferment time it also deviates
into a nuttier, spicier balance. Roasting is almost a pure factor of time -
the longer the roast, the less fruity. And finally a short conch keeps more
of the fruity flavour intact, while longer conching times blunt out the
sharp edges.

Take a bean with a nonfruity character like a West African, ferment it for
a long time (which is typical of Forasteros), give it a deep roast, and
conch forever, and you end up with something totally unfruity (e.g. Pralus
Ghana).

Take a bean already fruity in its make up, use a short ferment, roast
lightly, and conch minimally, and the fruitiness can be almost too much
(e.g. Domori Carupano).

So exactly where a chocolate ends up is a complex style decision.

Fruitiness isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are chocolates whose
essence is fruitiness, where you want to play to that strength. A great
example is Porcelana with a delicate strawberries-and-cream flavour. This
bean really needs minimal processing every step of the way, and thus it
should come as little surprise that the clear winner with it is Domori.

But with other beans the particular type of fruity flavour it has can be
jarring - my classic example there is Rio Caribe Superior - and companies
that are therefore more aggressive in processing it get better results,
e.g. El Rey.

S-B's problem, I think, is that they're indiscriminate - they seem to aim
for a fruity flavour with every bean. I think this reflects lack of
sensitivity. As a result a lot of their bars have a jarring fruitiness, and
there is particularly a risk of this with blends, because usually at least
one component will clash with a fruity style. In fairness, they have
deviated from the style at least once, in the Cuyagua limited-edition which
was excellent, but this seems, unfortunately, to have been an anomaly.

--
Alex Rast

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