São Tomé 78
by C-AMARO
Impact
Time once was when São Tomé crowded the field of "fine chocolate" origins. Part of the standard repertoire where practically every barsmith took a crack at its pod seeds.
Now it feels somewhat left behind in favor of other islands, some with more exotic allure: Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, Fiji, Hawai'i, St. Lucia, Tobago, & even Príncipe (right next door to São Tomé).
This then amounts to a return trip. An "oldie but goodie" in line with the question to the Double-Jeopardy answer "via the hot-button roaster of C-AMARO"... or "What, Alex, is Dionne Warwick singing Burt Bacharach's revised hit Do You Know the Way to Såo Tomé?"
Now scat it... ba ba, ba-ba, ba ba ba-ba-ba baaaaaaaa
REDUX REVIEW -- below are segments of C-AMARO's São Tomé 78%, initially released in 2011, followed by a refresher in 2013
Now it feels somewhat left behind in favor of other islands, some with more exotic allure: Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, Fiji, Hawai'i, St. Lucia, Tobago, & even Príncipe (right next door to São Tomé).
This then amounts to a return trip. An "oldie but goodie" in line with the question to the Double-Jeopardy answer "via the hot-button roaster of C-AMARO"... or "What, Alex, is Dionne Warwick singing Burt Bacharach's revised hit Do You Know the Way to Såo Tomé?"
Now scat it... ba ba, ba-ba, ba ba ba-ba-ba baaaaaaaa
REDUX REVIEW -- below are segments of C-AMARO's São Tomé 78%, initially released in 2011, followed by a refresher in 2013
Appearance 4 / 5
| Color: | dark dirt |
| Surface: | scratched pod mold with those only-from-Italy designer swales on the back |
| Temper: | lightly reflective |
| Snap: | a little muffled & cuffed for a 78% |
Aroma 7.6 / 10
2013: dense cocoa mud-pie cut by a stick... all the way thru to a crust of dried-mushroom on the bottom of it
2013: lumbers up a full archetypal ST & falls heavier than a 2x4 square on the nares, basically a cocoa log with raisin punch underneath & a smoldering chemical contrail
2013: lumbers up a full archetypal ST & falls heavier than a 2x4 square on the nares, basically a cocoa log with raisin punch underneath & a smoldering chemical contrail
Mouthfeel 13.4 / 15
| Texture: | dream cream |
| Melt: | very true / round belly |
Flavor 46.1 / 50
2011: chocolate grove with coffee & clove -> mushroom woods in the Aroma linger around the background with some faintly liminal sweetness leaning toward red Synsepalum dulcificum aka "miracle fruit" -> cocoa mass + cocoa butter of some appreciable lactose that creams out on those sensations
2013: forward black cherry chocolate over a charcoal pit -> rising acidity on plum skin & baobab (fab opener) met then curbed with melting butter -> light bitter nut / seed (Ricin-odendron heudelotti aka njangsa) dropping off those ST woods -> dried sweetener (Synsepalum dulcificum again) scraped up from the cupboard shelves -> ends citric (begonia -- nice close)
2013: forward black cherry chocolate over a charcoal pit -> rising acidity on plum skin & baobab (fab opener) met then curbed with melting butter -> light bitter nut / seed (Ricin-odendron heudelotti aka njangsa) dropping off those ST woods -> dried sweetener (Synsepalum dulcificum again) scraped up from the cupboard shelves -> ends citric (begonia -- nice close)
Quality 17.9 / 20
2011: Strong varietal-to-house style & a bar correctly-tailored to it.
C-AMARO's heavy roasting, which betrays some other origins, comes good here, both for this particular island cacáo & the rather escalated 78% formulation.
As with its unsweetened Ecuador 100, C-AMARO takes the aggressive nature out of these kernels & places their flavor squarely in a core chocolate profile with very close complements (coffee, cloves & wood).
Far from the most expressive São Tomé -- a bit of a flatliner in fact, further reduced by a 75ºC / 167ºF conche job, in keeping with this maker's general mark -- but this in conjunction with the aforementioned Ecuador-100 shows a certain fearlessness in tackling the higher percentages.
Where some labels thrive in the semi-sweet range (Guittard and Cluizel for instance), C-AMARO may be staking its claim to the very darkest of territories & finding its strong suit there.
2013: ST demands meticulous attention, especially at 78%. Most makers downshift to the 60 percentile & let the extra sugar handle the barking compounds. Not one to shy away, Marco of C-AMARO nonetheless reduces the heat while lowering the boom & just knocks it out.
Sure it volleys forth some prickly tannins, enough to alert the taste-buds, before butter intercepts & balms them into stratified flavor... layer upon layer... until that rather unexpected end point: a resurgent acid.
A bar from an origin that never seems to grow old & tiring but yields a subtlety different dimension with each rendering.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed November 22, 2011
Revised October 2, 2013
C-AMARO's heavy roasting, which betrays some other origins, comes good here, both for this particular island cacáo & the rather escalated 78% formulation.
As with its unsweetened Ecuador 100, C-AMARO takes the aggressive nature out of these kernels & places their flavor squarely in a core chocolate profile with very close complements (coffee, cloves & wood).
Far from the most expressive São Tomé -- a bit of a flatliner in fact, further reduced by a 75ºC / 167ºF conche job, in keeping with this maker's general mark -- but this in conjunction with the aforementioned Ecuador-100 shows a certain fearlessness in tackling the higher percentages.
Where some labels thrive in the semi-sweet range (Guittard and Cluizel for instance), C-AMARO may be staking its claim to the very darkest of territories & finding its strong suit there.
2013: ST demands meticulous attention, especially at 78%. Most makers downshift to the 60 percentile & let the extra sugar handle the barking compounds. Not one to shy away, Marco of C-AMARO nonetheless reduces the heat while lowering the boom & just knocks it out.
Sure it volleys forth some prickly tannins, enough to alert the taste-buds, before butter intercepts & balms them into stratified flavor... layer upon layer... until that rather unexpected end point: a resurgent acid.
A bar from an origin that never seems to grow old & tiring but yields a subtlety different dimension with each rendering.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed November 22, 2011
Revised October 2, 2013