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Tasting Notes to Avoid in Cacao & Chocolate - Episode - 55

off notes tasting Jan 19, 2026
Image of a person with ear protection making a sour face with text reading "Tasting Notes To Avoid In Cacao & Chocolate"

In the beginning of Manoa Chocolate we would analyze beans and be overly impressed by notes such as forest floor, earthy, mushroom, etc. Over the last ten years we’ve come to learn that these flavors are usually the result of poor harvesting, fermentation, and or drying protocols. In Hawaii we are lucky to live in a place where we can grow and make chocolate. This proximity to farming has allowed us to understand how a flaw on the farm translates to flaws in finished chocolate. In this episode Dylan discusses signs of poor quality cacao and why it’s difficult to make fine chocolate from it.

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