Color:	shockingly light & opaque for a 74% especially one w/ “morita” (“little purple one”) referring to the color of the mixed-in pepper
Surface:	pock marks, pimples, bubbles... fairly ugly
Temper:	spit polish
Snap:	limp; holes the size of caves along the break wall

a near copy of its C.O.G. base-blend, only less vanilla driven as chili subsumes some of that orchid’s perfume & pitomba appears in a mite brighter flint (pear or even apple more than apricot) -> wood chips imparted from smoke-dried chipotle which assumes an excited paprika-like countenance; decidedly Earthen, smooth, & mild to conjure a black truffle

Texture:	sand & grain
Melt:	fits & starts

streaming vanilla -> pitomba -> chocolate-dipped pear aspect -> heat creeping from rear recesses... really comes on like the back pepper bite of a Tuscan olive oil... a little choking, less all-out conflagration as much as pure capsaicin acid -> paprika qualities in the Aroma breathe thru too... searing the cocoa tannins -> clears sweet-heat on bubbling sugar-chicle to numb the mouth out

Bit rough around the edges – owed considerably to Texture – but ultimately a controlled warmth accentuates cacáo’s compounds, simulating a ‘hot cocoa’ mix.

Jalapeños, from which chipotles are derived by smoking-drying, vary wildly on the Scoville Index. The variety employed here seems of medium heat; then Escazu’s configuration modulates from there via a 74% cacáo-count, the most improtant component being rich butter content since fat alone cools pepper’s fire while still allowing flavor to come thru the smoke-screen.

Well-done & a strong recovery from the label’s heavy-handed Beaufort.

ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter, vanilla, chipotle

Reviewed Autumn 2009