For starters, a simple fact: Naïve’s 53% Milk Choc Java/PNG presents the first Dark-Milk from there of any consequence in a good while. Years in fact… since Domori’s Javagrey released in 2009-10. Bewildering really when considering how Javanese cacáo -- particularly the Java ‘A’ variety -- forms, as noted prior by the C-spot^®, one tripod in the Holy Trinity of Milk Chocolates.

Its controlled fire-dried seeds impart a smoked flavor characteristic of the origin that cuts thru milk incredibly well from the bottom (as opposed to Madagascar’s high volatiles that breakthru on top).

The other two holies of the milk holies are a) Esmeraldas whose own lactic tendencies seamlessly meld with milk for what the C-spot^® dub subtle 'Melk' bars; & b) the synergistic magic of Belize which creates fun-house flavors like bubble gum & cotton candy well beyond the sum of ingredients.

While Madagascar charts several successes with Milk Chocolate, its tart sharpness often scores at the expense of other components rather than in concert with them, the milk merely curbing the excesses as a probation officer.

And the babble burping out of certain mouths about Ocumare sounds off of infantile spilt milk. To date, Ocumare milks fail to make the grade. Proteins found in milk dilute its soft fruit notes & pollute its supple core cocoa, especially when containing tainted dairy.

Hence, the nonsense to silly utterances about this or that bar being the best ba-ba-ba chocolate in the world. Such absolutism issues forth from the spittle of babes that lays bare a provincial confinement, usually in service of protecting one in their brood, then picked up by others in the clan & retweeted until it becomes dogma: a) snot snobs who habitually disdain Milk Chocolate & say so, maintaining their purist’s credentials, & therefore “experts”, connoisseurs of & in the Dark; & b) like nocturnal bats, consume only limited amounts of light such as filtered in Milk Choc.

No reference to any ribbons or medals handed out at gobfests playing in a limited field overcomes this charade, a dynamic detailed in a couple extensive reports titled Chocolate Awards: Feast or Famine…. Or Fraud? (Parts I and II). Because no one else would police them, among the self-appointed roles of this site is to keep such dogmas in their place before they become established folksonomy.

Almost everything with chocolate is situational, variable, unpredictable, & difficult to replicate, making general rules hard to come by except for the one comprising this very sentence. The better part of wisdom dictates against absolute edicts & fiats.

But, hey, everyone’s free to say what they please, no? Including the curmudgeon’s reply to the crutch phrase ‘Have a Nice Day’: “Don’t tell me what to do.”