Puerto Quito (Sleeping Beauty) Ecuador Single Origin Chocolate

Puerto Quito — Ecuador

I know that as parents (chocolate makers and their beans) we should not have favorite bean children. (So I won't say this is my favorite). (But it has me completely beguiled). This is my Sleeping Beauty chocolate fairy tale. And I'm the evil queen. Over the years this bean was making me look bad and has given me so much grief - so much so that I threatened to banish them completely from my queendom.  I sealed them up in locked barrels and put them so far back in the bean room that they would never be seen again for 1000 years and then someone else could throw them away. Until my grandson Logan whispered to me to try it again. Once again, everything went wrong. Weird stuff happened. The scale turned off and on three times without me doing it and after that it gave out strange readings. (Batteries were in perfect condition).  During the roast - which I cannot walk away from because I'm plotting the on the graph every 60 seconds - my mechanical pencil flew out of my hand and broke into as many pieces as it possibly could and I had nothing else to write with so I'm scrambling trying to find a tiny piece of lead to plot my roast.  Then the roast went completely sideways all by itself (I did not even touch the flame OR the damper or any other controls) and it suddenly-flat lined for no reason and never got anywhere near the End Of Roast temp I wanted. Then, the entire room smelled like very strong strawberries - and stayed that way for TWO DAYS.  This bean never smelled like strawberries before nor did it have that flavor note. There's more mysterious weirdness, but let's get to the chocolate. (ssshhhhh, ok, it is now my favorite but don't tell Puerto Quito).

Available in the Large 3 oz Grand Adventure Bar or in 0.4 oz Tasting Tiles - in your choice of Extra Dark 70% and/or Dark Milk 55%.

• Origin: Puerto Quito, Ecuador
• Farm: Local Co-op with 25 producers
• Genetics: Nacional Arriba
• Cacao certifications: Direct trade, HCP Heirloom Designee, Organic
• Flavor notes: Tart cherry, marzipan, apricot, delicate warm spices and light nuttiness. The dark milk version echos all of this but in a fun and delightful way. Additionally, the Heirloom Cacao Preservations international tasting panel had high praise for the beans (which cracks me up) and described them as rich and complex, but balanced caramel and nutty notes, followed by complex fruit and astringent notes with a long-lasting, velvety chocolate finish.
• Ingredients: Cacao, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter (milk varieties include whole milk powder)

Puerto Quito cacao personality type: One part Imp (a sometimes troublesome and usually mischievous being/bean), and one part Justify (the racehorse). Justify is the 3 year old Thoroughbred who swept the triple-crown back in 2018. An unknown, untested underdog whose youthful and prankish naughty personality made him just as likely to jump out of the gates and immediately veer off the track to go nibble grass in the center field or, they hoped, he would put the pedal to the metal and run like the wind. Hopefully towards the finish line. Nobody knew! They knew he had potential. But was it potential to be a winner? Or potential to be a screwball?

Likewise, Puerto Quito has a gleam in its eye that makes one weary. What are you going to do this time, dear Puerto Quito? Are you going to do as you're asked? Are you going to sweep the chocolate version of the triple-crown as your regal lineage would have you do? Or are you going to throw off your jockey and go eat some hay? Maybe gallop over into the crowd and see if anybody has a slice of apple? Nobody knows.

One time while attending a cocoa roasting seminar given by the most knowledgeable cocoa bean roaster in the country (IMHO) and someone who also has a bit of inner prankster; he had offered up to us students to "bring your most troublesome beans to the seminar so we can roast them together and learn by doing". Haha! I chuckled an evil chuckle (being a little impish myself). I brought Puerto Quito. And yep, even the most seasoned cacao roasting pro had to step back and scratch his head. And then (!) he had to go back and roast yet another batch - because he could not quite believe a bean could be THAT squirrel-y. HA! Vindicated.

Puerto Quito does have quite a lineage. It is the #5 designee in the Heirloom Cacao Preservation lineup (HCPcacao.org). La Asociación de Productores Agropecuarios Artesanal Nueva Esperanza (ASOANE) is an association of 25 producers of artisanal agriculture located in Puerto Quito, Ecuador. Cacao farming arrived to this region more than 75 years ago when Nacional cacao was brought in from the neighboring Los Rios Province – known not only for its complex flavor profile but its ability to co-exist with other plants and trees that promote habitats for midge pollinators, birds, and other animals. Its flavor profile from HCP looks like this: Aroma: rich chocolate base with a hint of wood. Flavor: very complex finish is balanced and long lasting with chocolate being dominant and a velvety chocolate astringency. Pronounced chocolate start is augmented with caramel and nutty notes. Mid-taste brings in mild fruit acidity and astringent notes that drive the nuts/nut skin character along with complex plum/dark fruit and other fruit notes. Trace of tobacco/tobacco spice notes and hint of floral note go towards the spice and mint direction. Sounds pretty good, huh?

I know you haven't seen Puerto Quito in the Cocoa Forge lineup for a long time. Why? Well. I was mad at Puerto Quito. It would not behave. I was punishing it for its bad behavior and sent it to the back corner of the bean room to go think about itself. And so there it sat. For a long, looooong time. I seriously almost threw the whole lot away. Thousands of dollars in beans. That's how frustrated I was with it.

Fast forward. I wanted to make some chocolate that reminds me of my grandson, Logan. It had to be surprising, it had to have flavor that hits you like a wrecking ball. It needed to be sweet and pure with a side of chaos. It had to be spicey. It had to be uniquely itself, no question, no mistaking it for any other. Well. There's only one bean in the bean room with this reputation. I wearily opened the barrel. It smacked me upside the head with aromas – aromas that should not have been there. Not after all the time spent in the corner. It should have been subdued and mellow. Haha! Nope. And did it behave? Nope. It gave me a run for my money. Roasting it was like doing a steeple chase. But, in the end, Puerto Quito ran like the wind, just like its royal genetics promised.