Chocolate Alchemy Roasting Notes

Ecuador Costa Esmeraldas Direct Trade 2026

Source: Chocolate Alchemy - https://shop.chocolatealchemy.com/products/ecuador-costa-esmeraldas

Taste Target

Elegant Nacional cacao beans and nibs from Esmeraldas, Ecuador, with chocolate, brownie, brown sugar, hazelnut, and peach notes.

Roasting Notes

The roast profile for my evaluation was 9:15/11:25/16:55 @ 250 F. Generally speaking, you are going to want to take it easy on the throttle here. With the nut notes present, you run the risk of making them bitter. Likewise, I have found Costa Esmeraldas does not like a high EOR for the same reason. Fortunately, the bean announces this very nicely with sharp aromas. When you get those, whatever your method, turn the power down.

Drum Roasting

The specific profile I used to evaluate this is 13:50/16:25/20:55 @ 251 F. You can come in pretty strong, but you will want to pull the power back as you are coming into the end of the drying phase, lest you have too much momentum. Keep backing off that power as the roast progresses, or you run the risk of ending up with astringency because you had to choose between too high of an EOR temperature, which will bitter it, or too short of a finishing phase.

Behmor Roaster

Roast 2.5 lb if you can, and use P1 on the one-pound setting until you smell it going sharp, then turn it down. That should be around the 18 minute mark. Keep turning it down to keep the sharp aromas in check, and stop the roast when you can no longer get the sharpness to go away. I was down to 25% power by the end for my evaluation roasts.

Oven Roasting

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Put 1-2 lb of beans onto a tray, single layer deep. Check the temperature every 5 minutes, stirring at that time. When the beans are in the 205-215 F range, reduce the oven temperature to about 10-15 F above your target EOR, so if you are going for 250 F, set it to 265 F. When the beans reach your desired temperature and/or are smelling sharp, another 15-30 minutes, remove them and let them cool. This should give you a nice, fully developed roasted bean that is in little danger of being over-roasted.

Batch Notes

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