This java cookbook, https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/java , isn't working as intended. Perhaps it's something sinister inside the chef internals itself dealing with, or not dealing with, composite attributes.

default.rb

# showing java cookbook fail
node.default[:java][:jdk_version] = '7'
include_recipe 'java'
=begin
  doesn't override this line: 
    https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/java/blob/master/attributes/default.rb#L46
  I output some custom logging from the java cookbook at: 
    https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/java/blob/master/recipes/openjdk.rb#L47
  [2013-08-26T21:57:17+00:00] INFO: java version 7
  [2013-08-26T21:57:17+00:00] INFO: Processing log[java packages openjdk-6-jdkdefault-jre-headless] action write (java::openjdk line 49)
  [2013-08-26T21:57:17+00:00] INFO: java packages openjdk-6-jdkdefault-jre-headless

=end