Musty
Mould. A storage and drying fault, and one of the few chocolate defects that is genuinely unrecoverable at every subsequent stage.
Musty character is mould, and it enters the chain in one of two places: slow drying in humid conditions where the beans never get below the moisture threshold, or moisture reabsorbed during storage and transit.
It is worth separating from the pleasant earthy notes it neighbours because nothing downstream removes it. Roasting does not, conching does not, and a maker who buys musty beans has bought musty chocolate. It is the strongest argument for the storage and grading discipline that the sorting record describes.
- Descriptors used
- mould, damp cupboard, cellar, mildew, stale
- Desirable?
- A fault in every context, and unrecoverable.
Where it comes from
The route by which this note arrives in the chocolate.
When it is a fault
Mould growth from slow drying in humid conditions, or from moisture reabsorbed in storage or transit. Cacao is hygroscopic and will pick moisture back up.
How to tell: Smells of a damp cupboard rather than of soil, does not clear from the palate, and flattens everything underneath it.
Related
Covered in
- Chocolate defects and their causesOne of the most commonly misattributed defects.
Developed during
- DryingThis stage is where the note is created, amplified or destroyed. Mould. A storage and drying fault, and one of the few chocolate defects that is genuinely unrecoverable at every subsequent stage.
- Sorting, grading and shippingThis stage is where the note is created, amplified or destroyed. Mould. A storage and drying fault, and one of the few chocolate defects that is genuinely unrecoverable at every subsequent stage.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Chocolate Science and Technology — Wiley-Blackwell(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)