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Info Details
Country Honduras   
Type Dark   (80% "Dark-Light")
Strain Blend   
Source Nicaragua   (Matagalpa; La Dalla; Finca La Tronca)
Flavor Naked   
Style Mainstream      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
A potentially important, even vital, (ad)venture.

Mesocacao represents the combined fortunes & futures of some Chocolate All-Stars:
Hugo Hermelink, notable cacaotero, whose Finmac Cacao Estate near Guapiles, Costa Rica + more properties has been featured throughout the premium niche, most recently by Potomac & Ritual.

Giff Laube -- ace cacáo hunter / grafting specialist, ex-Xoco Gourmet upon whose work Duffy launched his label with a rookie home run called Indio Rojo;

and Steve De Vries ('nuff said).
Joining this trio are a few enterprising enthusiasts intent on bringing it to market (Mark D. Harman, John MacDonald and company) .

They spotted a facility in a food processing hub of sorts for region -- Choloma of the Cortes Department, Honduras -- with enormous square footage available for a song, equipped with LLoveras gear originally installed in mid-90's.

Now they're planting a flag -- re-hoisting one really -- in the heart of Mesoamerica where chocolate culture arguably reached its zenith in the pre-Columbian era. A long time ago except in the memories of descendants who wish it could be so again.

The group hopes to reclaim lost ground ceded to an army of vapid clones & candy giants who learned & incorporated the worst lessons from the Spanish (just add more sugar) in a quest to revive cacáo's faded glory & nobility.

It's in everyone's interest that they succeed. For all the talk of the region's prime gene bank -- CATIE in Costa Rica -- hatching flavorsome hybrids (R1, R4, R6 + a several others among them), nothing truly winsome has been forthcoming to date.

Instead, the small artisan barsmiths on the continent… the Cyrilas, Dantas, CariBeans, ki'Xocolatls -- are the ones showing the way back to the future.

And yet another reason to support them.
Appearance   4 / 5
Color: saddle-up brown
Surface: transit fatigue
Temper: distressed chic
Snap: shuddering bass
Aroma   7.3 / 10
cocoa & clay
Mouthfeel   13.9 / 15
Texture: flesh &...
Melt: … groove
Flavor   45.1 / 50
instant cocoa -> then malted for extra kids FXs -> grows tonka-figgy in cream (fine 'n sweet) -> indecipherably soft woods -> slaps a li'l sassy-fras on a caramel coaster -> Milk Choc analogues -> back malabar chestnut -> umami finish
Quality   16.8 / 20
At 80% this fills the slot nicely between Vintage Plantations' 90% Tronca & Soma's 70-something of the same cacáo.

No 2nd guessing or scratching the head to tease out the notes. Just straight bang-on chocolate. Simple & direct. De Vries & crew really align the crosshairs for center point flavor. The kind of injection upon which chocolate made its name prior to gaining its fame.

That it hails from Mesoamerica, where the percentage of worldwide cocoa production currently falls in the meager single digits, signals that the continent may be ready to reclaim its rightful place at or near the top of quality cacáo.

For, according to sourcing agent Giff Laube, w'all haven't tasted nothin' yet.

Let the rides begin… hop on it.

INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar

Reviewed April 11, 2014

  

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