Background
We inoculated black beans with koji over 48 hours to test their viability as a chocolate or coffee alternative for alternative chocolate tests.
After doing so, we’re testing two different approaches: roasting and blackening at 140°F. After roasting, they developed a strong fruity aroma and rich smell, but tasted hardly different from roasted beans. More work is needed here to figure out how the smell of roasted bean koji, or any koji for that matter, can be utilized.
The incubation occurred at 86°F and 80% relative humidity.
The blackening experiment is ongoing.
The black bean koji after 48 hours of incubation.