India Idukki Hills Brewing Cacao

This is the third time I’ve offered a bean from India and interestingly, mostly as I don’t like to stereotype entire diverse countries, it is remarkably similar to that first bean....except better.

The aroma starts off with the tangy aroma of dried peaches. There is a slightly tangy note that is not at all sharp or harsh and really, is downright mouthwatering.  It beautifully offsets clear candy like sweetness and tropical fruit.  In many ways it reminds me of candies that I've had abroad that are flavored by spices not found here in the USA.  I find it really interesting how no one flavor component stands out, noting the really round shape in the spider chart.   The overall impression is a chocolate that tastes of a higher percentage that you might expect.  The nut flavor is light almond and the spices are those of allspice, cinnamon and clove.

I’m left with an interesting seeming contradiction of sweetness and refreshing effervescence.  As I talk about in the roasting section, this bean has a very remarkable lack of inherent astringency that allows the roasts to be kept very light as there is no raw astringency to roast out.  To that end, this is a bean that responds to a light and heavy hand and although you may get more flavors (as expected) with a heavier hand, I feel the bean shows better with a lighter hand where the profile is not rounded out so much.

And here I'm going to hopefully not scare people away.  Unlike many beans I offer, this one is not suited really well to inexperienced roasters.  Frankly it is a bit touchy and if you don't get it right (I'll of course tell you how to get it right) you might be a bit disappointed.  Check out the Roasting tab for more on that.