Flavor Notes:
This is another offering wild harvest beans.  Like Tranquillidad, you are going to notice about these beans is that they are tiny.  The average cocoa bean is 90-110 beans/100 grams.  These average 150-160 beans/100 grams.  What comes with that is a distinct density and concentration of flavor.  The chocolate aroma is mouth wateringly bold fudge and clear chocolate with undertones of well tanned leather and burnt sugar.  In short, this is a chocolate bomb.  Think a chewy, thick, heavy mouthfeel with layers of that caramelized sugar. The fruit present is a sweet dried date.  There are no particular floral notes and although there is an impression of nut, I don't actually find any nut character.  This means you don't have to worry about it going bitter from roasting too much.  The earthy flavors are clean, supple leather and well cured tobacco on a warm day. To put this into perspective, this is now in my top 10 cocoa in the last 18 years and precisely why I fell in love with this bean some 12 years ago. This too will be a chocolate I won’t keep around as I’m going to eat way too much of it.

Tranquilidad Natural Forest Estate :
PRODUCER / COLLECTORS: Tranquilidad Natural Forest Estate of around 600 hectares is owned by Volker Lehmann and his family, as private enterprise. In over 15 years Volker Lehmann increased the Wild Harvest activities all over the Beni department on areas of the size of Germany, involving hundreds of mainly indigenous families and dozens of organizations. Since 2014, after receiving the HCP recognition for Tranquilidad, production is concentrated in Tranquilidad and neighboring collection areas between the villages of Huacaraje and Baures. All cacao is fermented and sundried at Tranquilidad fermentation and drying facility. HARVEST & PEOPLE: Harvest time in Tranquilidad is once a year between mid December to mid February. It could vary regarding the appearance of the rainy season starting in October and ending around end of May. The amount to harvest per tree varies also from year to year. In general the amount per tree is small as well as the pods and the beans, which are half the size of cultivated cacaos varieties. The cacao trees grow tall in its natural habitat and can reach 8 – 10 meters. People harvest the lower trunk by hand and use long sticks with a wire sling to get to the fruits in the upper parts. Sometimes they climb into the tree when there are many fruits, or they get eaten by monkeys and birds. The people like to come early in the morning, when mosquitoes are still less active, to collect in small groups or by family and make piles of pods. After 2-3 hours they sit at the piles and open the pods placing the fresh beans in bags. Once full the bags hang on poles to collect the dripping juice that people love to drink right there and to sell some in the villages. After that, between noon and early afternoon, they bring the bags by foot or on bikes to the harvest center, where they  are weighed and payed directly by weight and quality. The price is generally agreed at the start of the harvest and varies if there are more or less to pick. People are free to sell to the best offer or take home. The beans go then straight into special designed wooden fermentation boxes. The post harvest protocol was developed in 2003 and is mainly adapted to the size of the beans including slow sun drying.

Roasting Notes:
The first thing you should do is read my Ask the Alchemist 239 where I discuss roasting smaller beans.  After that, you can treat this bean pretty aggressively as there is tons of chocolate and no real nut  If you are drum roasting that means 10/8/6  F/min is just fine.  You want to pay attention to the aroma and reduce your ramps if you smell it trying to be acrid but I've yet to be ab.  You will also stop the roast a little sooner than you might normally since the bean is smaller.  EOR 254-260 F seems to work well where a normal sized bean of this character would be 258-264 F.
The specific profile I used for this sample was 14/16:15/20:00 @ 260 In the Behmor, P1 with 2.5 lb of beans for 20 minutes is a good sweet spot.  If you are only roasting 2 lb then pay attention to sharp aromas near the end of the roast and stop at that point.