Impact
That drunk Frankenstein that was 82% Mad, sobers up & turns into the pinball wizard of fruit monsters
Appearance 4.8 / 5
| Color: | dark Mad: ruby brown shifting toward orange |
| Surface: | marble plate |
| Temper: | soft lumens |
| Snap: | Richart’s specialty: clear pitch & clean break |
Aroma 9.1 / 10
you’ll be licking your nose for a taste of this scent... a stunner: freshly blown dates-of-ylang perfume a roasted complex containing sharp wooded chocolate (albeit a bit molded) w/ apricot blossoms rising in the center
Mouthfeel 13.4 / 15
| Texture: | light-heavyweight, somewhat bloated for Madagascar (triple action of added-butter + geneorus lecithin & deep conche) |
| Melt: | classic melter w/ good reach-around |
Flavor 47.2 / 50
bumps in a florid chocolate garland -> sweetens into hanging fruit, HUGE sweet-spot bouncing all over the board w/ rose apricot, purple plum, & black raspberry, all bulging & ripe for the picking, misted in an orgy of lime, mango, & kiwi twists...a veritable tropical candy machine & none of it gushy/fake Hi-C (just the opposite: eco-system / biome exuberance) -> tilts along a continuous cocoa-wood counter like so much soul-sauce -> clears zing-zang chocolate sprite, then sumptuous supple chocolate -> gianduja the after-FXs
Quality 18.1 / 20
Height of the collection (maybe mold can be a good thing!). Arresting combination of trademark dark roast (the house-style & quite unconventional for Madagascar - first seen in Pralus & Marcolini’s sacrilegious versions), plus enchanting Ambanja-like succulence (this however more pulsing & less filtered than that of Guittard’s vanilla-manipulated bar). Lecithin works the texture well, though it levels the depth a fraction & leaves some soy traces behind.
The sum total: a Madagascar of concentrated fruit without the bright acidity so typical of the island. As if this cacáo's DNA comes installed with memoryware of perhaps hanging back in some Venezualan past.
Compared to Richart’s stark 82% from the same origin, this presents an exposé on sugar as catalytic converter to full-blown fruit, which also obviates the need for vanilla, absent in this bar though utilized in the 82%. The results are tantamount to a call-to-action, for improved breeding, gleaned in the unsweetened Le 100, & for better gene stock (dare say engineering) so cacáo does not have to depend on the cane sugar.
ING: cacáo, sugar, lecithin
The sum total: a Madagascar of concentrated fruit without the bright acidity so typical of the island. As if this cacáo's DNA comes installed with memoryware of perhaps hanging back in some Venezualan past.
Compared to Richart’s stark 82% from the same origin, this presents an exposé on sugar as catalytic converter to full-blown fruit, which also obviates the need for vanilla, absent in this bar though utilized in the 82%. The results are tantamount to a call-to-action, for improved breeding, gleaned in the unsweetened Le 100, & for better gene stock (dare say engineering) so cacáo does not have to depend on the cane sugar.
ING: cacáo, sugar, lecithin