So Tom, suppose you had some beans that were too fruity, which has sometimes happened to me. They probably weren't fermented well. In your experience would a light wash get rid of a little bit of the acidity?
From a theoretical point of view washing the beans with water after fermentation is complete shouldn't effect the taste. When the fermentation is complete, the pulp has no more functional use. If, however, the beans are washed before fermentation is complete, the taste could definitely be effected (perhaps more bitter, and the taste would be less complex).
One last thought. Are you sure than you conched it enough in your melangeur? I have found that I have a hard time telling if the texture is smooth enough or not straight from the melangeur. There have been times when I thought the chocolate was done, but then after I tempered it, I found out that it was a little grainy.
Actually I'm not sure what the originator of this thread was asking or suggesting. Usually when people ask me about raw chocolate they are not concerned about the potential microbiological health hazard, but rather are interested in the possible health benefits one might get from eating a less processed food item.
Yes, you can make bars without roasting the beans. You just don't get a lot of the flavors (most?). Tempering depends on having enough cacao butter, and if it's a raw liquor, it has plenty of butter. Mixing raw chocolate with regular chocolate would be interesting because you could cut down on some of the bitterness of the chocolate, although I imagine that the acidity (organic acids) would increase a bit. Don't know about how healthy it would be though.
One comment about Clay's discussion above, I have measured the temperature of beans drying in the sun (in Costa Rica) and have found that the temperature of the surface of the beans (not the ambient temperature) often get above 120 degrees F, and sometimes get as high as 130. Does that mean that, after drying, they are already roasted? Are they mildly roasted? The beans in the farms here usually take at least a week to dry, preferably a little longer. If it happens to be a sunny week, that means that the beans are exposed to temperatures of 120 degrees F for 7 days.
