Impact
Appearance 5 / 5
| Color: | golden hazelnuts marooned in dark brown |
| Surface: | a brick-mold, studded / spiked w/ whole filberts; dropping this onto a passerby from any 2nd story window will surely get their attention |
| Temper: | museum glass |
| Snap: | w/ a pour that thick it's bound to be an ear-splitter |
Aroma 7.9 / 10
beyond the obvious caramelized hazelnuts & streaming vanilla, a witchy stew of hashish, malt, wafers, ale, sawdust, ox musk -> drop of soursop + chalcedony on cocoa stone -> thin metallic streak (ethyl methionate) then oxalic acid -> ultimately goes green on palm frond & red on dragon fruit
Mouthfeel 12.7 / 15
| Texture: | a jawbreaker – grit, grains, crumbs, & chunks, this thing’s got it all... |
| Melt: | quarrlesome as massive nuts collapse about lecithin-waxed smoothness |
Flavor 46.4 / 50
red chocolate (dragon fruit, cherry, rhubarb) -> hazelnuts -> stone elements followed by good minerality cutting thru bitter tobacco leaf... & thingsare just starting to get interesting -> natural latex / rubber bouncing off chicle gum -> almond meal at the confluence of chocolate-filberts, their combined roast just smokes the tobacco -> more undying reds -> oils take over w/ hazelnut & cocoa butters rubbing against each other for a major cacáo-wow lasting for... eons
Quality 18.6 / 20
An experience: the Textural conflict, the Flavor vertigo, the reverberating length... on & on. Bessone knows his hazelnuts (supposedly grows his own crop on a family-owned grove in the hallowed Langhe section of the Piedmont) & he’s gradually getting a handle on cacáo too.
This very much in line with the Nej piece from his Boxed Chocolate collection but here with added brute force. Cacáo's phenols & esters on even greater display, rendering a darker patina than 67% suggests.
Besides being the capital of Venezuela, ‘Caracas’ in the 19th Century was a trade-name for a cacáo variety (albeit loosely-defined -- basically the entire coastal Venezuelan growing region) of esteemed quality. This, then, a very worthy bar to wear the title & inherit the legacy. It deserves a place on the mantle alongside other world-class constructs like Infernale by Pralus and Corallo's Gran Kru
ING: cocoa mass, whole filberts, sugar, cacáo butter, soy lecithin, vanilla
Reviewed Autumn 2009
This very much in line with the Nej piece from his Boxed Chocolate collection but here with added brute force. Cacáo's phenols & esters on even greater display, rendering a darker patina than 67% suggests.
Besides being the capital of Venezuela, ‘Caracas’ in the 19th Century was a trade-name for a cacáo variety (albeit loosely-defined -- basically the entire coastal Venezuelan growing region) of esteemed quality. This, then, a very worthy bar to wear the title & inherit the legacy. It deserves a place on the mantle alongside other world-class constructs like Infernale by Pralus and Corallo's Gran Kru
ING: cocoa mass, whole filberts, sugar, cacáo butter, soy lecithin, vanilla
Reviewed Autumn 2009