Venezuela 80
by C-AMARO
Impact
Marco Colzani, the 'C' in C-AMARO that otherwise means 'bitter' in Italian, tries to pull a Larry Byrd / Michael Jordan espresso shot out of a chocolate bar that bounces off a rubber tree, then around a hazelnut before ending up in a plot of terra preta do indio (“dark-earth”)...
... the result of a controlled-burn, invented by early Americans who turned infertile land into fertile self-renewing soil using that technique; atop which their modern descendants -- such as members of the Yekuana, Jivi & Wayuu communities from the southern Venezuelan state of Amazonas -- can sing, dance, & pray as they invoke their ancestors to protect the next harvest of cacáo now that this one has been incinerated.
REDUX REVIEW -- below are segments of C-AMARO's Venezuela 80%, initially released in 2011 followed by a refresher in 2013
... the result of a controlled-burn, invented by early Americans who turned infertile land into fertile self-renewing soil using that technique; atop which their modern descendants -- such as members of the Yekuana, Jivi & Wayuu communities from the southern Venezuelan state of Amazonas -- can sing, dance, & pray as they invoke their ancestors to protect the next harvest of cacáo now that this one has been incinerated.
REDUX REVIEW -- below are segments of C-AMARO's Venezuela 80%, initially released in 2011 followed by a refresher in 2013
Appearance 3.7 / 5
| Color: | dark side of burnt sienna |
| Surface: | a pinhole for every seed in the pod mold + hasty swirls on the back |
| Temper: | obscure reflection |
| Snap: | low woofer but solid |
Aroma 8.4 / 10
grilled nuts & amber waves of hay, chamomile tea & toasted grains amidst a stand of Albizea saman & rubber trees (latex evident); generally abundant in pyrazines (key chemical compounds found in cocoa, especially roasted cocoa)
Mouthfeel 10.6 / 15
| Texture: | as angular as the Flavor |
| Melt: | fitful |
Flavor 30.9 / 50
2011: rolls in choc-covered nuts -> candy element (cross between Slo-Poke™ & candy corn) -> coffee predominates the rest of the length -> charcoal take it to espresso-levels until a long bittering end into ashes & woods -> buttered filberts crackle thru the fire at the very finish; latent berry aftermath
2013: a second (after its Ecuador 100) raw-edged cocoa from C-AMARO, this one with heavy butter shield -> green vines climbing all over a strangulated nut shell -> undergoes a White Chocolate countenance in league with Choklat's Porcelana -> weeds between stone cement cracks -> more mineral-metal cocoa -> starch & moss
2013: a second (after its Ecuador 100) raw-edged cocoa from C-AMARO, this one with heavy butter shield -> green vines climbing all over a strangulated nut shell -> undergoes a White Chocolate countenance in league with Choklat's Porcelana -> weeds between stone cement cracks -> more mineral-metal cocoa -> starch & moss
Quality 12.1 / 20
2011: Stern, misshapen, & inarticulate.
Oversteps the roast (even the color gives it away), torching all those pyrazine promises in the Aroma to a carbon burn whence the "fruity sensations" advertised on the wrapper are buried in smoldering remains.
Rather than placing faith in Venezuela's reputation for winsome genetics, seen in several formats & formulations -- from Amano's Nibs to Willie's Venezuela Black & the similarly weighted Patanemo from Mast Bros -- C-AMARO fires hot though it professes a 2-tiered heat curve in a coffee roaster of a) roughly 200ºF for 15 minutes followed on by b) about 260ºF for a few minutes more.
Whatever the precise figures, they betray the Taste.
And all at odds with another high percentage chocolate in which C-AMARO avoids any such conflagration: its 100% unsweetened bar from a far more hazardous location -- Ecuador.
Inconsistent? Only if discounting that both share a penchant for deep roasting.
2013: Radically different formulation & contour. Lightly cooked & heavily buttered.
Whether the robust roast of the 2011 release (in line with fellow Italian Slitti) or the "cold-pressed" 2013 update (the new euphemism among "raw" choc-heads), each proves inauspicious which probably owes to a flawed seed lot.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed November 15, 2011
Revised September 25, 2013
Oversteps the roast (even the color gives it away), torching all those pyrazine promises in the Aroma to a carbon burn whence the "fruity sensations" advertised on the wrapper are buried in smoldering remains.
Rather than placing faith in Venezuela's reputation for winsome genetics, seen in several formats & formulations -- from Amano's Nibs to Willie's Venezuela Black & the similarly weighted Patanemo from Mast Bros -- C-AMARO fires hot though it professes a 2-tiered heat curve in a coffee roaster of a) roughly 200ºF for 15 minutes followed on by b) about 260ºF for a few minutes more.
Whatever the precise figures, they betray the Taste.
And all at odds with another high percentage chocolate in which C-AMARO avoids any such conflagration: its 100% unsweetened bar from a far more hazardous location -- Ecuador.
Inconsistent? Only if discounting that both share a penchant for deep roasting.
2013: Radically different formulation & contour. Lightly cooked & heavily buttered.
Whether the robust roast of the 2011 release (in line with fellow Italian Slitti) or the "cold-pressed" 2013 update (the new euphemism among "raw" choc-heads), each proves inauspicious which probably owes to a flawed seed lot.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed November 15, 2011
Revised September 25, 2013