Color:	apricotta brown
Surface:	barely cracked; more the size of chunks than Nibs
Temper:	like fallen leaves
Snap:	n/a

exceptionally strong baseline cocoa for a Madagascar -> sniffs out a chicle & treacle of starburst cherry + dash of cinnamon red-hots countered by what sprigs up faint wintergreen!!

Texture:	crisp crunch
Melt:	hydrolizes into soft padding

gentle cocoa grinds down into earth elements -> bright chert & limestone -> vaguely mild citrus -> distinct olive (a first for a Mad) -> savory beef bouillion -> sodium really pressing the Pal (palate) -> sour & savor counter each other nicely into galangale -> topsoil at the back -> barks some cycad wood chips & starch -> clears away fungi; faint breath of chocolate in the after life embalmed in that wintergreen

Confirms all the data-points for this recent vintages of Madagascar cacáos: brightly high volatiles / low chocolate foundation (other than the very beginning & end, simply no chocolate flags to belie the Aroma) making it even more top-heavy than the historical norm for Sambirano Valley.

Masts do a terrific job in winnowing – very clean. Then they cuff the volatiles in a fairly sound roasting to shunt some brightness & even up the balance with those umami FXs to bring it into a middle ground.

A good counterpoint to Tcho’s approach on Nibs from the same origin.

Reviewed Spring 2010