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Ocumare 80

by Choklat
Info Details
Country Canada   
Type Brut   (80%)
Strain Ocumare   (Criollo group)
Source Venezuela   (Aragua; Ocumare de la Costa Valley)
Flavor Earthen   
Style Rustic      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
A big Mac of a lumberjack
Appearance   4.7 / 5
almost Coppeneur quality
Color: on the dark side of brown w/ red oxide element
Surface: strong mold of a pod & cacáo leaf dot w/ pinholes; nary a fingerprint on the back, just beautifully soft streaks ala Aurora Borealis
Temper: translucent semi-flat
Snap: flumps in stride w/ its Temper; maintains good edge though
Aroma   6.9 / 10
fuming diesel, leather, vanilla around a big cocoa + dried slate of almonds -> picks out palm fronds & grass from the llanos -> quercitin & guarana add acidity for samán pod; lively
Mouthfeel   5.4 / 15
Texture: turgid glob job (Beta VI territory)
Melt: labored & sluggish
Flavor   37.1 / 50
virtually an exact replica of Aroma: diesel lighting up over naked choc -> peaks early on almonds then goes on a tear from there -> palms rooted in humus stick around the rest of the length -> evasive fruit just potted by soil -> quercitin & guarana -> groundswell of dirt brownie competes vs. mud cream, flirts w/ grisly-bear beef -> goes out into the burnt shadows; VOG (Vanilla Oak Giant) dressed in black plaid the aftermath
Quality   13.3 / 20
Stilted & jejuene, never recovers from that inauspicious start, pulling away from itself. A trifecta of woes holds this back, damning flavors from aligning: a) drying method tastes suspect (all that diesel possibly from laying beans out near the side of a road on asphalt); b) uneven roast (back corners appear torched; forefront under-fired, such as all the overhanging palm FXs); & c) over-conched (tremendous particle distribution felt in the viscous Texture).

Still, respectable for 80%, & bold for a start-up to venture so early into these percentages. The timid if wiser course of action would stay in the semi-sweet range or the low 70s to work out the kinks, work on technique, & origin profiles (in this example here, the quercitin / guarana are precursors to Ocumare's high fruits when catalyzed with 5% to 10% more sugar). Then, again, extremely high butter content in this offers a compromise for a similar if not quite the same result.

That's just the beauty of being young enough to know everything.

ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter, vanilla; CBS (Cocoa Mass/Butter/Sugar ratio): ~ 3:5:2

Reviewed Spring 2010

  

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