Vanuatu 64%
by Cravve
Impact
This bar evokes one of those atomic atolls way out in the Pacific -- i.e., a tropical paradise under the mushroom cloud -- whose mutant foliage bear the fruits of nucleated technology (basically an island in a microwave).
CAUTION: handle with care & make sure the bomb-sniffing dog wears a hazmat suit.
CAUTION: handle with care & make sure the bomb-sniffing dog wears a hazmat suit.
Appearance 3.7 / 5
| Color: | opaque rouge |
| Surface: | nicks; scratches; release mark |
| Temper: | suet shimmer |
| Snap: | fat chocospeak |
Aroma 4.3 / 10
pig roast in a fire pit
Mouthfeel 9.2 / 15
| Texture: | granulated |
| Melt: | slippery ropes |
Flavor 29.8 / 50
sugar blast -> molasses -> raisin -> mild wax enkindles smoked cocoa -> gas fumes & petrochemical residues... & the bar just melts down into a flammable toxic dump site from there -> chalk thrown on the pile for a flame-retardent
Quality 10.3 / 20
Grisly. Opening holds some promise but the bar fails to hold it together.
Mechanically kiln-dried so that any subsequent roasting, however light, seems deep-fried, then stuffed into polypropelene sacks to enhance flammability.
Supposedly evokes "herbaceous flavor"; if so, only in the way that uncontrolled burning of the forest replenishes the soil.
64% cacáo-content calculated, according to the wrapper, as 50% cocoa mass + 14% cocoa butter. Barsmiths usually add around 5% extra cocoa butter, or none at all. 14% puts this in league with Choklat's butter-bars from Calgary. Where butter in those serve as a salve, this just just accentuates the scorched Earth policy by letting one feel the grim reapings as well as taste them.
Poor seed selection, abysmal post-harvest, & woeful processing. What more can one ask for? Other than that, it all goes south into an ever downward death spiral.
That wrapper also makes this inexplicable claim: "The lower cocoa content allows the underlying flavors of this bean to be revealed."
Burying it, therefore, should resurrect it.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla
Reviewed January 8, 2013
Mechanically kiln-dried so that any subsequent roasting, however light, seems deep-fried, then stuffed into polypropelene sacks to enhance flammability.
Supposedly evokes "herbaceous flavor"; if so, only in the way that uncontrolled burning of the forest replenishes the soil.
64% cacáo-content calculated, according to the wrapper, as 50% cocoa mass + 14% cocoa butter. Barsmiths usually add around 5% extra cocoa butter, or none at all. 14% puts this in league with Choklat's butter-bars from Calgary. Where butter in those serve as a salve, this just just accentuates the scorched Earth policy by letting one feel the grim reapings as well as taste them.
Poor seed selection, abysmal post-harvest, & woeful processing. What more can one ask for? Other than that, it all goes south into an ever downward death spiral.
That wrapper also makes this inexplicable claim: "The lower cocoa content allows the underlying flavors of this bean to be revealed."
Burying it, therefore, should resurrect it.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla
Reviewed January 8, 2013