Seventy% - Topic: Chili and the Porcelana bean

Domenico on Chili and the Porcelana bean

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:01:19 +0000

As to what I know, it was fermented on its own. It in fact did not taste like chili-it was chocolate with a very strong chili aroma.

Sebastian on Chili and the Porcelana bean

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:58:47 +0000

You can significantly influence the flavor of the bean by manipulating what it's fermented with. I've never tasted a bean that, fermented on it's own, tasted like chili peppers - however, if it was co-fermented with them - all sorts of things could happen.

Domenico on Chili and the Porcelana bean

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:37:51 +0000

I recently had the chance to taste a pure Porcelana bean from the Franceschis' plantation. It was roasted, ground and transformed to a 73% chocolate by Rózsavölgyi, the small chocolate manufacturer who won a silver and a bronze at the 2009 Academy of Chocolate Awards. Interestingly enough this bean in its bean form already had a very strong cayenne/chili pepper aroma, and this continued on in the chocolate: in the mouth, a dazzling variety of different chili, sweet paprika and bell pepper tastes that covered almost any other taste (except a slight chocolatiness). I never understood really why Indians spiced the cacao drink with chili. This was kind of a revelation: because there exist some varieties of cacao that actually tastes the same! Anyone had any similar experience? The colour of the chocolate itself of course was just as with any other Porcelanas: you'd easily think it is a milk choc.