Roasting cacao, 2020 lockdown style
Today I'm about to engage in a couple of hours of video-roasting. It seems just about anything can be virtualised these days.
Making artisanal tree-to-bar chocolate is a very manual and labour intensive process. It's alchemy, magic almost. The quality of the result depends highly on the energetic commitment of the people involved.
I work with very little staff and screen them very carefully. Only people with the ideal mix passion, skill, attitude and commitment are allowed to work on my chocolate. That's my commitment to your experience!
Back to roasting:
When I receive the cacao from the farms, I expect it to be well fermented and adequately dried.
In a previous blog article, I talked about the genetics of cacao, and we'll get back to what happens on the farm and expand on the fermentation and drying process.
For now, we'll limit the scope to checking the fermentation by sampling some beans and splicing them in half to see how well this particular batch was fermented.
When a cacao seed has been well fermented, it develops a brain-like structure and brownish colour. Anything over 80% is excellent, but I never reject beans based on their visual aspect: I always make a batch of chocolate because sometimes strange-looking beans turn into fantastic chocolate.
There are no rules, just guidelines :) So let's say that 80% is well fermented if and good standard if you don't have the luxury of making a sample batch of chocolate.
"Roasting is the alchemy of transformation by fire."
By roasting the cacao, it develops its characteristic chocolaty flavour. High-quality cacao requires gentle roasting; as such, it will also keep its fruity hints.
High-volume, commercial cacao, in contrast, is usually brutally roasted (read: burned) to hide all defects to only remains with a very bitter and almost carbon-like profile. Of course, this is then generously compensated by adding a lot of sugar and additives :)
Usually, I roast three to four sample batches with different profiles. I then make chocolate out of those to determine what works best for this specific batch.
"Once this profile is set the remainder of the batch is roasted according to that exact "roasting curve".
The big difference between coffee and cacao roasting is the temperature. Cacao roasts at a much lower temperature than coffee which results in a longer and less ample roasting curve.
A batch of speciality coffee is roasted in under 18 mins, while cacao usually takes 30 minutes or more.
Today, I'm separate from my roasting equipment, so I will spend my morning on a video conference with my pupil to ensure that everything happens according to my standards. By now, as a skilled barista, he's become very proficient in roasting coffee but still needs some guidance when it comes to cacao.
It's tough to roast without your senses. Impossible really, so depending on somebody else's senses is all I can do at the moment. Fortunately, a well-trained coffee roaster comprises a sharp nose and palette.
I do miss the smell of the warm crunchy beans just coming out of the roaster!
On a positive note: This quarantine situation forces me to give trust way more generously than I would do under normal circumstances. It turns out to be an excellent exercise which accelerates the learning process as well as building a strong team spirit.
Life is what you make of it... I choose to make chocolate!