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Info Details
Country USA   
Type Semi-Dark   (65%)
Strain Trinitario   
Source Trinidad   
Flavor Fruits & Flowers   
Style Classic      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
The 7 Sages of Plato’s Protagoras... in which Socrates simultaneously extols & warns about the love of wisdom, inviting brief but memorable remarks, like a laconic brevity be on every person’s lips with this: Know thyself... & nothing too much. (Most ignore the critical second part.)

Scion Gary Guittard & the veterans in his company taking the philosopher's advice to heart.
Appearance   5 / 5
not supposed to look this good
Color: beautiful burnt-orange
Surface: excellent plaque-worthy grain
Temper: lightly stained / varnished... faintly recalls Slitti’s best
Snap: bring the chainsaw
Aroma   9.4 / 10
aeromatic... intense, pungent, & huge: lays the lumber (ka-BOOM) with dense, dark hardwoods, enough beams to build a catamaran & float this bar(ge) up to Guittard in SF Bay area of California (including a dash of cascarilla bark & its white-petaled blossom intact) after tall grass & (smokeless) tobacco clear the air -> copra & picholine round out the fragrance of generally potent base notes & completely outsized for a 65%
Mouthfeel   12.2 / 15
Texture: liquid light
Melt: a smoovie (smooth move)
Flavor   41.9 / 50
slips right in the slot with a mix of power ‘n verve: fruits well-suited against cocoa-esque woods spraying misty plumes (sea grape + currant) -> goes juicy over pomerac & pomelo -> vanilla to the forefront influences bougainvillea into licorice-yam / persimmon teardrop, then spiced black cherry -> thin streak of stringent pink grapefruit (backcross to pomelo) wraps around a finger-cane (sugar) to seal-in the spice bracket
Quality   15.7 / 20
DR receives more accolades nowadays because of its advancing post-harvest practices & robust cacáo varieties but Trinidad remains tried & always true. Ditto Guittard.

The delight evoked upon beholders of this fruited bar owes much to roughly 35% sugaring, which inversely equates with 65% cacáo (a goodly portion of it from cocoa butter) -- a ratio that titivates an already delicately-toned origin. Then in the execution, Guittard compensates. On one hand it weaves a tight intermesh in the conche while on the other exerts overbearing control, in large measure due to vanilla.

The sum total somewhat underwhelming, less grandiose than Trinitarios themselves, lacking the pointed fruit detail of, say, Coppenuer or Amedei. Still, a fun-time cocoa.

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

Reviewed January 2011

  

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