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Identifying mouldy beans
Hi,
I was wondering if someone could give me some guides for identifying mouldy beans.
I'm new to chocolate making and recently roasted a new batch of beans I had. As I was doing a pre-roast scan, maybe 10 beans out of ~500 were a duller/grey shell colour covered in white. The bean still seemed a full, "plump" bean - not withered or shrunk. Is this what mould looks like on a bean? I seemed to have a gut instinct not to use them, but then realised I actually had no idea what a mouldy bean looks like.
Is mould on the shell OK (because it gets removed) or does it indicate something askew with the nib?
Is a small % of mouldy beans OK to use or does it affect taste pretty quickly?
Thanks for any help
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Forbes on -
I have very little experience with this but was told by a grader at Munne in the Dominican Republic that he was looking for mold on the inside of the bean not the shell.
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Permalink Reply by ramya on -
I am experianced with only indian cocoa beans, dont bother about moulds on the shell, it affect taste only if the inside nib is mouldy. Take a sample of hundred beans and cut the beans to find out if the beans are mouldy inside, in our case ther is white moulds and in some cases ther is slightly yellow moulds, both affect taste. As a bulk rule 2% mouldy beans permissible. But as we are artisan chocolatiers and we wish to make the best. I suggest beans with 0% mouldy beans for the best result. Gud luck
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