Impact
Believing this to be just another welterweight tipping the scales at a skimpy 65% only invites opening the mouth to grave risk of its enormous punching power. Gram-for-gram this brings down the hammers of Pac-Man Pacquiao & just knocks it out.
Appearance 4.6 / 5
| Color: | magenta-tinged brown (the basic color to the new int’l mix of cacáo grown around the world) |
| Surface: | thin 35g tongue-shaped mold |
| Temper: | the sweat glistens |
| Snap: | branches right off |
Aroma 8.7 / 10
same sticky-wicket as Hotel Chocolat's Rabot-65 except tobacco smoke envelopes juju fruits lit by volcanic-cocoa, sublimating for all the molasses of that other bar, into subtle wintergreen; the total doubling-down for vibrant vivacity
Mouthfeel 13.4 / 15
| Texture: | hotel-smooth service |
| Melt: | slow hands opposite fast Flavor |
Flavor 46.8 / 50
answers the bell & comes out swinging a "red" hot chocolate attack... rapid & intense fruit bursts in waves & flurries -> sweetens to cherry-cola -> lava & wintergreen in the Aroma expressing as pine tar -> black mission fig the uppercut into dipped-pineapple for an animated suspension before settling back as a gooseberry-layered stack into loam & volcanic molasses -> deep honey-fudge w/ inherent vanilla tone
Quality 18.1 / 20
IG/65-96 stands for Island Growers, 65% cacáo-content, 96-hour conche (yeah, bars nowadays require a technical field manual).
Clearly, some farms on St. Lucia grow ‘the really good stuff’, providing an island wide panorama on this origin compared to the telescoped bars from the single-estate Rabot. The fruited-analogs of ICS-95 treated to a healthy ferment can be gleaned in the mix. By selecting from a broader spectrum, this bar tempers Rabot’s micro-topography which really blows the gene pool up with its caustic volcanic material. The wider island growers' chocolate here shows much better agronomy, soil management &/or genetic content.
The upshot: enormous punching power for a 65% - no added cocoa butter accounts for some of that. Also, in simultaneously downshifting to a lower percentage while increasing the conche length generates greater suspension of sugar along the cocoa particles. In the process, Coppeneur (the actual behind-the-scenes maker of this private label offering) cleans up the flaws found in Hotel Chocolat’s inaugural release from St. Lucia – the 72%. The configuration & technique arrest some of the tannic force to highlight those contrastive acids & polish this bar into a dark beauty. Cutting no corners, it covers everyone of them instead: tremendous symmetry, blance, cohesion & stamina.
A rare feat for a 65% semisweet.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, soy lecithin; CBS (Cocoa Mass/Butter/Sugar ratio): ~5:6:6
Reviewed Autumn 2010
Clearly, some farms on St. Lucia grow ‘the really good stuff’, providing an island wide panorama on this origin compared to the telescoped bars from the single-estate Rabot. The fruited-analogs of ICS-95 treated to a healthy ferment can be gleaned in the mix. By selecting from a broader spectrum, this bar tempers Rabot’s micro-topography which really blows the gene pool up with its caustic volcanic material. The wider island growers' chocolate here shows much better agronomy, soil management &/or genetic content.
The upshot: enormous punching power for a 65% - no added cocoa butter accounts for some of that. Also, in simultaneously downshifting to a lower percentage while increasing the conche length generates greater suspension of sugar along the cocoa particles. In the process, Coppeneur (the actual behind-the-scenes maker of this private label offering) cleans up the flaws found in Hotel Chocolat’s inaugural release from St. Lucia – the 72%. The configuration & technique arrest some of the tannic force to highlight those contrastive acids & polish this bar into a dark beauty. Cutting no corners, it covers everyone of them instead: tremendous symmetry, blance, cohesion & stamina.
A rare feat for a 65% semisweet.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, soy lecithin; CBS (Cocoa Mass/Butter/Sugar ratio): ~5:6:6
Reviewed Autumn 2010