Madagascar – Sambriano Valley – Organic – 2008

This is a fine flavor grade of cocoa Trinatario from Madagascar, Sambriano Valley. It is a Single Estate Cacao from the Northern Ambanja region and is Certified Organic. We briefly carried this origin a couple years ago, but sold out very quickly. This time I think I have enough of a supply locked in that it will be around a while.

If you are not familiar with Madagascar cocoa, then prepare for a wild ride. It is a real powerhouse. It is quickly gainly a reputation as an immensely complex cocoa bean with a huge potential. On the other hand, if you don’t prep it correctly (which I fully plan to help you do, prep it correctly that is) the finished chocolate has a tendency to simply rip your tongue out of your mouth and beat around the head and shoulders with it. Did I mention powerhouse?

What is a ‘bad’ preparation? Well, you don’t really want to over or under roast it. I would tend to go a little light, than a little heavy on the roasting, but not by much. There will be LOTS of volatile acids produced when you roast – watch out. Those alone can knock you on your @$$. But they are also a good roast indicator. When those start to decrease (15-20 minutes at 300-310) you can stop the roast. Don’t wait for the chocolate aroma on this one. It’s there, but by the time you smell it the volatiles will be long gone and some of the great potential complexity will be gone too.

Now, if I have not scarred you away (which of course is not my intent), then you will find this year is actually a great year for Madagascar. It’s actually a little tamer and approachable than some years. As I have found characteristic of this origin, there is quite a bit of bright fruit, in particular raspberry, but this time there is also a backdrop of softer fruits like plum and apricot. As for the chocolate making itself, if you can add the unrefined chocolate to your Melanger at the 140 F range (and then just let it naturally cool) at the beginning of the refining process, a substantial amount of those volatile acids will tame (but not go away) and give you complexity that this bean is getting to be known for.

The preparation on this bean is very clean and nice, and has an interesting red tone to the bean as is pretty common with this origin.