Color:	burnt umber, quite dark for semisweet range
Surface:	smudge pot w/ grease spatter
Temper:	uneven (in keeping w/ Surface), from flat to oily sheen
Snap:	about right... crisp low pitch; clean edge

chocolate caramel gets airborne before the wrapper comes off -> heavy sugar ‘n light spice (cinnamon & vanilla borrowed from the caramel) -> wood chips of its 70% sib ground into coffee & tea twigs

Texture:	firm & pinguid
Melt:	clumps in stages

picks right up at the aroma: chocolate caramel w/ cream tones -> mulberry & fresh fig around dried papya its super sweetspot -> sugar dissipates to breadfruit -> plantain -> mentholates eucalyptus chocolate -> distant bitter brings home black-tea brownie

No denying this vintage & varietal. El Rey got their hands on a good one. True, this bar is gushy sweet & overly vanilla-ized but Rio Caribe wears the make-up well, packing a fair whallop while mightily cutting thru the high sugar load, doubly so considering cocoa mass accounts for only 20% of the total. As with Macuro, a premium has been placed on bean selection & roast calibration.

ING: cocoa liquor, sugar, cacáo butter, soy lecithin, vanilla; CBS 1:2:2