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GUATEMALA
Puro-Dark
Cacao Nib
Cardamomo
Café

by Diego's
Info Details
Country Guatemala   
Type Dark   (+ Flavored)
Strain Hybrid   
Source Guatemala   
Flavor Fruits & Flowers   
Style Mainstream      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
Chocolate logs... to recall Teponaztli or Mesoamerican slit drums made out of tree-trunks. Once hollowed out, they were tuned harmoniously to the resonant pitch of the drum cavity itself, then adorned with carvings & ornamentation.

These “bars” are likewise elaborated with additives that hum & rhyme well together, making Diego a teponāzoāni (the one who plays the drum).


Florentine Codex, 15th century
Appearance   4.4 / 5
Color: rolled cigar, or Tootsie Roll®-style tubular mould
Surface: striated grain
Temper: mottled matte
Snap: none to speak of
Aroma   7.6 / 10
plain & grounded cocoa base
Earthen funk
spice additives
Mouthfeel   11.3 / 15
Texture: bits 'n grit
Melt: quik
Flavor   43.9 / 50
Puro-Dark
80% cacáo-content
coffee-fudge -> rum -> morello cherry -> spice bread
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, unrefined sugar, orange juice

Cacao Nib
80% cacáo-content
continues the fudge action of Puro-Dark (above), less coffee though & more mocha -> mutes the alcohol FXs for a candy bomb of flavors starting with Hubba Bubba® fruit crush, then puffing up cotton candy -> settles back malt bark;
Nibs edge this over toward greater chocolate foundation, reducing the sweet pop -- marginally
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, unrefined sugar, orange juice

Cardamomo
75% cacáo-content
blazing eucalyptus-laden cardamom -> bubble gum back -> choc-peanut butter cup
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, unrefined sugar, evaporated milk, orange juice

Café
75% cacáo-content
false start on milked cocoa & then snapping coffee butts in, crowds the palate -> a lengthening tide of orange rises to meet it -> sweet mocha-latte stemwinder
Fine confluence of flavors that amplifies this cocoa's already intrinsic coffee tones with added coffee; really well-married
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, unrefined sugar, orange juice, evaporated milk, coffee beans

Quality   15.7 / 20
The new era craft chocolate prides itself for being "all about the bean", putting the balance of flavor squarely on the cacáo / cocoa, catalyzed by sugar only. Diego is all about everything else that goes along with that.

Puro / Pure? Only in the best adulterated sense.

The unrefined cane sugar (panela) bolsters this humble chocolate which receives additional preening via orange juice expertly splashed into the flavor matrix.

A connivance if shy of a confection.

And a damn nice surprise.

Reviewed November 23, 2015

  

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