09.02.07
Cellaring Potential
Some time ago I stumbled upon a pot of gold…not quite, just an airtight barrel of Sumatra Blue Batak that I decommissioned for underperforming. A few months later I sampled a few kilos of this rested Sumatra as it was the Sulawesi’s turn to give me grief. The Blue Batak was heavier, plummier, raisiny sweeter and had cleaner aromatics - almond, hazelnut, butter - after several months in airtight hibernation.
To this day I remain haunted by it, even more so now that it has acquired the mystique of a pot of gold out of my reach for ages because a certain transnational corporation (known to char the living smithereens out of beans) has bought out future crops. So I have gone accustomed to working with the accessible and consistent, but less vertiginous, Sumatra Kuda Mas.
…until a few days ago when I picked up a
new crop Kuda Mas and ran my fingers
through the beans. The smell was fresh
turned forest floor with a mixture of moss
and must in the distance, and the beans
were unconventionally less patchy, more
uniform throughout the bean, larger, denser,
cooler… The cup had heft but the structure
was gangly and awkward, trying to assert
its baritone birthright but crackling along the way.
I will research on the impact of airtight storage on polysaccharides and low-molecular weight sugars in green beans, and in turn what this does or doesn’t do to some of my favourite odorants and their derivatives - phenols, furans and pyrans. In the meantime, I’ve to find me some empty barrels…