Impact
Appearance 4.8 / 5
| Color: | nothing blanco about it: rouge bathed in brown (roasting F/Xs) |
| Surface: | mint fingerprint condition |
| Temper: | A-1 |
| Snap: | a branch that saws right off |
Aroma 8.6 / 10
Marlboro Man, Bonnat-style (call it l’Hombre Gitanes... a Fenchman in Spanish-speaking Peru) & fractionally close to his Cusco from down south (the LCD: butter) sans climbing vines & leaves: smoked leather-backed chocolate (incl a bit of kerosene) underpinning black olive, black currant, balsam of Peru & Palo Santo plus ripe plum; overall soft, supple & serene
Mouthfeel 11.8 / 15
| Texture: | difficult & calcified |
| Melt: | dragging balls |
Flavor 37.7 / 50
super outbreak on hot cocoa mix -> rice & cassava -> mite pomegranate seed -> tailing spice (cinnamon ‘n licorice) -> brownie batter -> back-flushes a maple-like lucuma & the white fruit of cherimoya
Quality 15.9 / 20
A Piura but nowhere near the precision of Rogue’s single-estate nano-lot that pinpoints a sunburst raspberry in Juan Tirado’s cacáo grove which disambiguates taste so Colin Gasko of Rogue could practically bake a chocolate cake.
By contrast this bar gathers beans from a dozen growers covering a wider geographic area. Naturally their combined harvests yield more diversity & consequent inconsistency. Sourced in all probability from the same co-op as Zotter’s Peru 80 (whose review offers an in-depth explanation of the environs).
Similarly downcast & disconsolate as far as chocolate goes. Stéphane Bonnat attests that the high white-seed count (approximately 4/5 of all beans in the shipment) presented challenges & a tricky roast to stabilize the perfume.
Sho’nuff, nothing really happens in a sing-a-long to “nothing really matters” (Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody)... any way the wind blows.... including nowhere.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter
Reviewed January 2011
By contrast this bar gathers beans from a dozen growers covering a wider geographic area. Naturally their combined harvests yield more diversity & consequent inconsistency. Sourced in all probability from the same co-op as Zotter’s Peru 80 (whose review offers an in-depth explanation of the environs).
Similarly downcast & disconsolate as far as chocolate goes. Stéphane Bonnat attests that the high white-seed count (approximately 4/5 of all beans in the shipment) presented challenges & a tricky roast to stabilize the perfume.
Sho’nuff, nothing really happens in a sing-a-long to “nothing really matters” (Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody)... any way the wind blows.... including nowhere.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter
Reviewed January 2011