Impact
Ever since around 2008, on account of a superb harvest due to fabulous weather season, The Dominican Republic acquired a following as the ‘go-to’ destination for cacáo tourists. Yet even here chocolate-lovemaker Josef Zotter still plumbs the underground – discovering the sugar cane village of Yamasá.
Welcome to the Sugarcult of Milk Chocolates.
Welcome to the Sugarcult of Milk Chocolates.
Appearance 4.2 / 5
| Color: | light brown, almost blonde |
| Surface: | smudged but among Zotter’s best |
| Temper: | fat wax shimmer |
| Snap: | a good & sound hi-bass; another fine edge from this label |
Aroma 8.4 / 10
roasted cocoa / salted peanut brittle undercut by low-tang buttermilk shy of sour yet suggestive of it as well as a wisp of tobac -> goes sweet pink grapefruit or even chironja -> flickering mango
Mouthfeel 12 / 15
| Texture: | thick butter |
| Melt: | choppy |
Flavor 45.1 / 50
milk / cocoa butter confluence... flow thru nut-brittle toffee spiked in salt -> malted egg creams -> Easter egg candy -> vanilla plantain -> cereal flake in buttermilk... slow dissipation & dissolution into a White Chocolate fadeout
Quality 18.2 / 20
Classic MC with some twists.
Zotter makes a startling admission: for this 40%, he preferred a mild cocoa cultivated in Yamasá, pretty much in the dead-center of DR, along Río Ozama. So mild it borders on ‘moonmilk chocolate’ – all those near-white analogues (egg creams, plantains, ivory white chocolate...). And yet nothing goes missing, thanks to even-handed salt & vanilla distribution that both maximizes & balances out the profile.
Further contributing to the outcome is a very gentle roasting on these sensitive beans, rolled with a combination of various cane sugars (possibly right from Yamasá itself – a sugar cane center of sorts), then matched to a ridiculously short 6-hour conche creating a textural paradox: smooth & lumpy -- the lone imperfection in a bar that otherwise works.
ING: raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, full cream milk pwdr (21%), cocoa mass, more sugar (“whole cane”), vanilla, salt
Reviewed Summer 2010
Zotter makes a startling admission: for this 40%, he preferred a mild cocoa cultivated in Yamasá, pretty much in the dead-center of DR, along Río Ozama. So mild it borders on ‘moonmilk chocolate’ – all those near-white analogues (egg creams, plantains, ivory white chocolate...). And yet nothing goes missing, thanks to even-handed salt & vanilla distribution that both maximizes & balances out the profile.
Further contributing to the outcome is a very gentle roasting on these sensitive beans, rolled with a combination of various cane sugars (possibly right from Yamasá itself – a sugar cane center of sorts), then matched to a ridiculously short 6-hour conche creating a textural paradox: smooth & lumpy -- the lone imperfection in a bar that otherwise works.
ING: raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, full cream milk pwdr (21%), cocoa mass, more sugar (“whole cane”), vanilla, salt
Reviewed Summer 2010