Color:	ultimate brown w/ opaque ebony
Surface:	thick & dense (fudge-like) sporting the standard Tulicorp mold made prevalent by Plantations
Temper:	oiled ala Slitti
Snap:	weak (in conjunction w/ Surface indicates substandard conching)

picks up where Appearance left off: contained & claustrophobic... straw (wait... it gets better) -> cool cinnamon red-hots -> cocoa-nut + an avo/papaya blend -> Theobroma bicolor peanut -> cerealizes grains & bella donna... then grabs huge air on fudge-brownie mixed in coffee, popping a candied berry (the most improbable straw progression ever – from straw-grass to straw-berry)

Texture:	dry; micro-grit
Melt:	lurches; astringent

runs out cocoa-cinnamon -> dried coffee grinds, the constant ambient noise to molasses -> licorice -> tilts off-kilter w/ grains (rice, corn, add yucca starch & straw hay) -> copal -> deadly nightshade (bella donna) shakes the ground w/ bitterness -> flattens another step down on the ladder to dirt & fungi to dull the senses -> stringent raw cocoa / cacáo verdé; peanut sticks in the exhaust pipe

Similar vein to Alice, Noka, & Original Beans; not estafadores (cheats) but another branding venture (that peculiarly American phenomenon) in the world of upmarket chocolate. Vere promotes ethical choconomics, an environmental strategy to turn green into gold. It boasts more labels, certificates, & endorsements on its packaging than a NASCAR racer: Eco-Cert, USDA Organic, Single-Origin, Maquita Foundation &, uh oh, the ever-ubiquitous Arriba.

Tulicorp’s fingerprints, however, are all over this crime scene, a large firm in Ecuador influencing the cacáo breeding practices in that country, particularly the increased planting of CCN-51.

Bland all the way around: subprime genetics, indiffernet processing, & resultant flat profile add up to a dead-slab lying in a refrigerated morgue.

More proof the road to hell is now paved with green intentions.

ING: cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, soy lecithin

Reviewed 9/04/09