Cocoa beans

Bolivia - Heirloom #1 Felix Paredes 2025 - Direct Trade

Origin: Bolivia
Region: Alto Beni Beniano
Type: Heirloom Cacao Project, #1 - Felix Paredes
Certifications: Direct Trade
Year: 2025

The aroma is soft chocolate and delicate roasted nut. The very first bite is incredibly chocolate forward and deeply sweet, almost verging on too much burnt sugar like sweetness. After that first rush of chocolate there is a mineral tang that keeps the flavor profile lively but not acidic.

There is a perfect amount of bitterness (like fresh hops) and quite low astringency. As the chocolate melts in your mouth (I won't judge you if you simply chew the first few bites) there is soft and supple leather, clean loom and yet more softness in the form of yummy cured tobacco leaf and a panorama of savory nuts.

Rounding out the whole chocolatey profile are sweet sapote like brown fruits and a satisfying yet subtle savory umami that I can't seem to get enough of.

Profile Drum Roasting: I was surprised this bean too the aggressive hand I dealt it but it did and with flying colors. Really, words are not the best medium for conveying how to roast. The profile I used for this is 11:50/13:45/17:45 @ 260 F. What you should pull out of this is that can come in hot and heavy but steady and in control so you can slow it down as it requires. 2 minutes in the development phase to bring out the chocolate is just great.

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: I've been experimenting a lot recently with a less fussy way to oven roast and I find this procedure works pretty well. It is moderately predictable, repeatable and although not as dynamic and controllable as a drum roaster, does a good job. You will need an IR thermometer. Roast 2 lb of beans. Preheat your over to 350 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 260 + ~15 = 275 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. If you do find your roast is progressing too fast, adjust accordingly, starting at 325 F and/or changing your target to 255 F. Overall you may well roast 30-40 minutes. The important part here is to get good momentum going in a hot oven and then basically coasting to finish.

About Felix Paredes & The Alto Beni Region

"Our best farmer, Felix Paredes (74) has selected 8 well producing local clones for his 3 hectare farm. This year I have made a special edition of Felix Paredes cacao that will be presented through HCP for its upcoming 10th anniversary in 2024."

That is the back story of this bean and I'm really enamored by it.

These are out of the Alto Beni region of Bolivia. I find it terribly interesting how different the flavor profiles are given similar genetics but different cultivation and fermentation procedures. When I asked about the background of this cocoa, this story unfolded. I really supporting this and I hope you do too.

"I was running a B2B project in 2009 to develop fine flavor cacao protocols for boutique chocolate in Denmark. To get there we started from the ground and built a state of the art cacao centre in 2009 (Flor de Cacao) and worked only with selected producers in Alto Beni. The first production was right away successful in Paris at the International Cocoa Awards. In 2014 our Alto Beni cacao reached HCP (Heirloom Cacao Project) status.

"Unfortunately we had to shut down Flor de Cacao in 2015 due to lack of funding, high cocoa prices and production collapse caused by Monilla. The plant went into dormancy for 8 years. Last year I was able to reopen the plant and renew the contacts to the farmers, some already over 70 years old. "The genetic cacao pool in Alto Beni, based on old trinitario varieties, has been continuously evolved since the 70'ties as many farmers believed that only a seed can produce a tree. In Peru and Ecuador CCN51 clones became the panacea. In Alto Beni, entirely unnoticed from International Aid projects, the people and their organizations overcame the Monilla crisis applying a local selection process of local elite varieties. The cacao you have is the result of the efforts to preserve genetic diversity thanks to the persistence of smallholder farmers in Alto Beni.