Color:	a little redeye to the dark brown
Surface:	terribly uneven pour to an otherwise very clean print (properly cooled before releasing)
Temper:	semi-gloss
Snap:	crumbling soft (in the thin sections); piercingly sharp (the thicker areas)

roasted garland: intrinsic vanilla-orchid floating, in a lilly-pad-on-the-pond fashion, over cocoa butter with a purple-fruited sweet spot (an almost Chuao-worthy blueberry but darker)

Texture:	a little rubbery (cacáo's polymorphic lipids misaligned)
Melt:	prolonged

welcome entrance on abiu (a sapote fruit, in the guise of a sort of pure chocolate cream) before darkness descends... feeling berry blue, then black mission fig front & center -> charred tannins with Oreo™ edges -> spice (clove & vanilla) -> fruit resurgence (blackberry) overrun by stringent volcanic cocoa -> backs out closer to where it started -- breadfruit

1st of the Hamakuas (after Madre Dark or Shark Dark) without the added-vanilla screen which affords a good window onto this seedling. And this bar lets on to its inside (however darkly the general tone within).

Slow but kind start that gradually attacks with some bite if not vengeance.

A diametric combo of charring (overshoots the roast which blackens the island's innate sweetness) & chilling (slightly short on the ferment, hence the lactic acid cream notes & astringency). Plus perhaps a bit unevenly processed in the application of each. Dandelion, awaiting an upgrade in equipment, relies on tiny Behmor roasters for instance which means multiple micro-batches get mixed together in the macro production run.

This the initial Hawaiian release for the label. Expect more & better to come with subsequent tweaks.

ING: cocoa mass, sugar

Reviewed February 21, 2012