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Amazon

by Adi
Info Details
Country Fiji   
Type Beans   (Lot 7)
Strain Amazon   (Amelonado / Calabacillo)
Source Fiji   (Vanua Levu; Savusavu)
Flavor Crossover   (Fruits/Flowers x Earthen)
Style New School      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
A nation that has more islands than Europe has countries (or the U.N. for that matter). 322 of them, plus over 500 islets, surrounded by powdered-sugar beaches & cerulean-blue Pacific waters filled with schools of psychedelic fish.

And, it boasts cacáo that rings with as many colors as a rainbow of skittles, all flowing in on the aerodynamic-feelings of a Frisbee™...

BULA everybody: welcome to Fiji.
Appearance   4.8 / 5
Color: golden-bronzed husks; inside cotyledons intensely dark (indicia of deep ferment), coal-train black w/ only a slaty fraction or an occasional brown
Surface: some Big Boys (although 40 seeds per pod max sound like a lot), mostly flat; lizard-skinned seeds
Temper: well-defined veins on the tough husks; perfectly dried (low to no crusting); little bit of burnish on the beans inside
Snap: crinkle
Aroma   8.3 / 10
bean pub: beer, sawdust & salted nuts... replete w/ after-party sweat, tang & ferment -> unhusked shows cocoa & granite w/ a side of tartar & a far-off whiff of ginger blossom
Mouthfeel   13.2 / 15
Texture: soft collapse; mealy gruel
Melt: fantastically round for a bean (innate oil, soft & unctuous creating great spherical dimension which also helps in its astringent-free quality)
Flavor   45.6 / 50
chicle gum w/ underlying rainbow skittle fruit -> wheels around the pub FXs in the Aromatics which take over w/o ever squashing the candy (incl a banana starburst) -> hardens-on-mass as tannins flex their muscle, growing coarse, mealy grut, & nut-meat (unblanched almonds) -> fruit stays on it though (pineapple) + ginger-twist accompanied by rising bitter -> flushes out dark ale infused w/ banana on overdrive
Quality   19.8 / 20
Amazin' Amazon & unreal for unroasted. This, supposedly an Amelonado type (Calabacillo also on the property) but none of the assault factors found with the same genotype & similarly lengthy-ferment on another island a half a world away – Claudio Corallo’s Príncipe - & yet so much more embroidered than Journée’s bean from neighboring Vanuatu.

Reportedly cured for up to 2 weeks, the ferment pile turned twice a day to let the airflow thru for an added plus of low-to-no fungus growth. And it shows: unplumbed flavor just deepens, alternating sugar & salt / sweet ‘n savory (wind-drying for another week captures all that sodium from the ocean breeze while thoroughly removing moisture down to less than half the normal range: 4% - 5%)... all of it sapid.

The only caveat: where’s the chocolate flavor? To be continued... in Adi’s bar work.

ING: cacáo bean

Reviewed Summer 2010

  

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