Flavor Notes:
The aroma is bright and tangy just like the spider chart shows. As we have all come to expect from Mexican Almendra Blanca, there taste if very acid forward but has a great sweetness to offset it.  It is minerally yet creamy.  It is a really fun and interesting point and counter point.  I really like the nuttiness here and how it is almost like a milk chocolate in hiding.  There is a little malty sweetness that you even get from certain white breads.  Again, that round, soft mouth feel plays over and over.   I personally find it devilishly approachable and also refreshingly satiating. I find it a good lesson to taste it up against the other Mexico Alemdra Blanca we have in as it shows how different fermentationd and producers can showcase different flavor profiles.

Finca Frida – Almendra Blanca (Tabasco, Mexico):
The Almendra Blanca  we have had in the past is a Mexican variety of cocoa, coming from the Chontalpa region in Tabasco Mexico coming from around 30 farmers supported by Maxiterra’s Cocoa Program, based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Sustainability and Fairtrade thru FAO’s Farmers Field Schools model (FFS). Here, this is from the single estate Finca Frida.  Compared to elsewhere in Mexico, and for cacao farms the world over, cross-pollination of the cacao from different genetics at neighboring cacao farms does not occur, thanks to the fact that the almendra blanca grown at Finca Frida is located next to the sea and far away from other cacao farms. Small fermentation boxes are used, built with the same tropical woods that are grown in the estate. Usually, fermentation boxes have a capacity of 1000 kg of wet beans, but these boxes are much smaller, Each box contains between 150to 200 kg of wet beans. The beans are fermented 3-4 days, pretty short due to their delicate nature. The small batches are also dried separately under the sun with small drying beds. The drying process lasts usually in 6 or 7 days to a moisture content of 6-7% and then sorted by hand as needed.

Roasting Notes:
With the really light bitterness and astringency, plus the nut component, you are not going to want to take this to a really high end of roast temperature or you are likely to make the nut bitter.  Low to Mid 250s are fine and high 240s are ok.  That does NOT mean you have to roast it super delicate though.  2.25-3.0 minutes in the development phase will do great.  Just pull the roast when it starts to get sharp and expect it a little earlier than some beans.

In the Behmor 1600 2-2.5 lbs for 18-19 minutes is fine.  Just watch for the sharp ending.

Profile Drum Roasting:  You should approach this roast in the same way I describe the flavor.  Quiet but assured.  There is a finesse here and you should not quite take that to mean delicate.  Really, words are not the best medium for conveying how to roast.  The profile I used for this is 16:45/19:00/22:45 @ 249 F. You should not come in hot and heavy but steady.  2.5 minutes in the development phase to bring out the chocolate without turn the nut notes bitter.  After that, you want to turn the roast down quite a bit.  Much beyond that mid 250s and you court bitter nut notes  But I want to caution about just doing 'long and low' as seems to be a thing.  If you do that you run the pretty high risk of not developing the flavors that are there and in that case you could well be left with the dreaded boring chocolate. Behmor:  Due to the cold start of the the Behmor, you can just set it on the 1 lb setting with 2.5 lb of cocoa and go.  When you begin getting aromatic notes, somewhere around 4 minutes left (14 minutes elapsed of the 18 minute start) drop the power to P3 (50% power) and continue roasting for about another 6-8 minutes, waiting for the aroma to either decrease or get sharp.  This is all of course if you don't have a thermocouple in the beans ( Modifying your Behmor ) If you have that you can follow the profiles above.
Oven Roasting: You will need an IR thermometer.  Roast 2 lb of beans.  Preheat your over to 325 F.  Place your cocoa beans in a single layer on a baking sheet and into the oven. Stir the beans at 5 minutes and check the temperature.  Continue roasting until the surface temperature reads 205-215 F (it may well vary across the beans).  At that point, turn your oven down 10-15 F above your target EOR, in this case 250 + ~15 = 265 and continue to roast, stirring every 5 minutes until approximately 250 F.  Again, there will be variation but the beauty of this method is having turned the oven down it is difficult to over roast.  The important part here is to get good momentum going in a hot oven and then basically coasting to finish.  You may not get much chocolate or brownie aroma with this one.