Esmeraldas Milk
by Salgado
Impact
Swears by the Sophisticratic Oath: 1st do no harm & 2nd K.I.S.S. (Keep It Serenely Simple) in concert with the 8th Law of Chocodynamics.
Appearance 4.5 / 5
| Color: | golden biege |
| Surface: | airholes dot the surface |
| Temper: | semi-gloss |
| Snap: | heavy for a Milk (lots of well-tempered butter) |
Aroma 8.9 / 10
luxury Milk Dud™: cocoa dust sprayed over rich flowing cream -> queso manchego on the rundown yielding brined nuts rolled in grass
Mouthfeel 11.7 / 15
| Texture: | this Silk Road paved w/ granules & powdered chunks |
| Melt: | lurches to full roundness |
Flavor 46.4 / 50
instant cocoa cream -> macadamia -> evanescent mint / wintergreen -> golden hay & strawgrass -> extremely subtle clove -> buttered pecan -> soft vanilla caramel (neither added) rolls for hours... to young flesh coconut -> delicately stacks entire progression vertically, beautifully -> umami at the back
Quality 17.6 / 20
Shocks & rocks in a quiet way.
Nothing in Salgado's Ecuador portfolio to date (mostly disasters: Arriba & this bar’s 70% sibling) prepares for this.
Esmeraldas' inherent dairy tones layered in complimentary formation with whole milk, & together they let off something special. The fact of this bar being overly sweet (sugar the lead ingredient) & Texture no match for taste (except toward its round finish), can easily be overlooked by a flavor packet with a range rarely seen in the Milk Choc category. Especially those mint eurythmics, all curling at a tranquil subliminal level.
One instance in which Salgado's deep roasting style turns into an advantage, as the soot in its Esmeraldas 88% fertilizes the regrowth & the spring grass here, while the varietal’s fleeting fruit-acids crosshatch into mentholated offerings just at the edge of detection.
The only drawback: given its fragile nature, can it be duplicated bar-to-bar, batch-to-batch, bud-to-bud (cacáo bud to taste bud)?
ING: sugar, cacáo butter, milk powder, cocoa mass, soya lecithin
Reviewed June 2009
Nothing in Salgado's Ecuador portfolio to date (mostly disasters: Arriba & this bar’s 70% sibling) prepares for this.
Esmeraldas' inherent dairy tones layered in complimentary formation with whole milk, & together they let off something special. The fact of this bar being overly sweet (sugar the lead ingredient) & Texture no match for taste (except toward its round finish), can easily be overlooked by a flavor packet with a range rarely seen in the Milk Choc category. Especially those mint eurythmics, all curling at a tranquil subliminal level.
One instance in which Salgado's deep roasting style turns into an advantage, as the soot in its Esmeraldas 88% fertilizes the regrowth & the spring grass here, while the varietal’s fleeting fruit-acids crosshatch into mentholated offerings just at the edge of detection.
The only drawback: given its fragile nature, can it be duplicated bar-to-bar, batch-to-batch, bud-to-bud (cacáo bud to taste bud)?
ING: sugar, cacáo butter, milk powder, cocoa mass, soya lecithin
Reviewed June 2009