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Tranquilidad 72%

by Zokoko
Info Details
Country Australia   
Type Dark   (72%; Batch #11036104)
Strain Beniano   
Source Bolivia   (Iténez Province; Huacaraje; EstateTranquilidad)
Flavor Fruits & Flowers   
Style Classic      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
In one way / out no way... drifts to another dimension beyond the Twilight Zone, Alice, Bible studies, sci-fi, string theory & the event horizon of a black hole.

It’s not supposed to be this good, period.

Doubly crazy from a start-up in an affrontal challenge to the C-spot’s™ ‘2 kewl 4 skool’ policy.

Zokoko might be a saw off the same branch of nursery rhymes in ‘one who flew over the cacáo bough’ but already chief broma-dens (tree-house denizens of Theobroma cacao) as they ratchet up the stakes, escaping a world surely slipping into theo-insanity by falling ever deeper into it.
Appearance   4.5 / 5
Color: almond beige
Surface: heavily brushed & bubbling
Temper: soft light
Snap: almost requires forced entry; excellent integrity on the break wall
Aroma   9 / 10
ineffably light (at least initially): cream lotions, massage nut-oils, herbal-honey tincture, fruitage mist + enough white chocolate / cocoa butter to mimic Milk Chocolate -> with time comes the weight of dried fruit (that only-from-Bolivia pruned accent) in a mud pie
Mouthfeel   11.9 / 15
Texture: gelatinous pulp
Melt: slow to slip the bonds
Flavor   48.7 / 50
very black attack (black mission fig, blackberry & black licorice) -> wildly high coffee in the upper palate -> chicory -> black currant -> imagine the sweetest plum... then sweeten some more with honey, add Bolivian fuchsia -> chocolate prune laced with licorice -> pomegranate -> drops it on a black cherry
Quality   18.3 / 20
Michelle & Dean Morgan at Zokoko come to chocolate thru coffee. So they know how to grind. And roast appropriately.

While nowhere near etherealized as Cru Sauvage or even Oialla – also sourced from Tranquilidad Bolivia – for this is far more condensed (a 120-hour conche guarantees it), it ranks among the blackest expositions ever. In the same color league as the twinned-beans in the Araguani blend of the northern Andes. And yet so endemically sweet, the contrastive polarity both dynamic & stunning: black fruit / white sugar. Basically wine-critic Robert E. Parker’s fruit Cab driven thru the tropics.

Perfectly pitched on the overall weight, the internal ratios (CBS [Cocoa Mass / Butter / Sugar] practically 1-to-1 between Mass & Sugar with Butter refereeing one-&-a-half again as much, which partially explains the Texture, a trait that inheres generally to Tranquilidad), then the processing parameters... everything set right.

ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin

Reviewed July 29, 2011

  

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