roast camp newsletter n3
wrapping up camp with a roasting guide, link to the recorded livestream, and a cupping cacao for roast evaluation video
Roasting’s big questions: how do we get the flavors we want, and how do we know we accomplished this task?
The long and short of it:
Aroma = flavor is the short answer. The long answer? chocolate is not just one flavor, because origins do not create the same exact flavor.
If we blend origins we can get good ol basic chocolate flavor, but recalling “why it’s craft” reminds us that highlighting origin diversity is a beautiful thing. Likewise, if we blend our roast batches we’ll even out the highs/lows: the good roasts and the not-so-good will balance each other, as long as there’s more roasts that made us happy vs roasts that made us not so happy.
If we choose to think in terms of “light vs medium vs dark” we need to understand that end temperature is not the only (or most impactful) determining factor.
And, it’s helpful to know that in roasting we are coaxing aromatic volatiles to do their thing, despite not knowing exactly which volatiles we’re working with in the beans, but! accepting that whatever those combinations are, they lead us to chocolate flavor.
Below, you’ll find a pdf download that covers the equipment, insights, and how-to’s, a link to our 2-hour livestream roasting discussion, and a cupping cacao for roast evaluation how-to video.
If you couldn’t attend the camp livestream, the recording is below (click the caption). We covered how-to’s and as much of my nine years of roasting cacao I could pack in :)
In specialty coffee it’s a no-brainer that evaulating the roast happens long before the barista asks One shot or two? Both coffee and chocolate roast beans to develop flavor, and in each heat is used later to further extract flavor (water for coffee, refining/conching for cacao).
Some chocolate makers taste just-roasted beans, while many (many) others rely solely on a test-batch grind to “know” if the roast results are what we’d hoped. The issue with using a test-grind batch is that refining adds additinal variables that effect flavor: heat from the friction and the machine itself, and time with heat applied.
Using specialty coffee’s cacao cupping is a way to evaluate a cacao roast immediately or shortky thereafter, and can save $ by minimizing bean loss through trial/error.
Happy roasting,
Mackenzie
Hi Mackenzie! The cupping is really interesting. Do you do this a lot yourself?
Hey Mackenzie I will try the cupping method inmediately, although I have a doubt. Can you really feel the taste when the brew is so cold over ice? Normally one can feel the flavours better when the product itself is at room temperature, right?