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Johe

by Friis Holm
Info Details
Country Denmark   (via France [Bonnat])
Type Dark   (70%)
Strain Hybrid   (mainly Amelonado crossed by indigenous varietals)
Source Nicaragua   
Flavor Sugar   (molasses)
Style Rustic      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
Johe, pronounced 'yo hey'... put the hands in the air... feel the sway... yo, hey... hey, ho... for no good reason... just the new aerobics... nutts-to-butts y'all... with the ice & the bubbles, pimpin' this slab with as many zeros after it.

Johe... goin' thru the motions.
Appearance   4 / 5
Color: pale rouge
Surface: oops, manufacturer forgot to scrub off the "Bonnat Chocolate" embossing
Temper: more than the economy experiences a recession
Snap: boom
Aroma   7.7 / 10
initially flat & unresponsive
comes to with dramatic tension between a compote vs. compost that dips into an inkwell
once fully airborne molasses / tobacco / sapote slather on a thin layer
Mouthfeel   12.9 / 15
Texture: standard smooth
Melt: uneventful
Flavor   31.7 / 50
ample fudge quickly beats a retreat into cream ganache -> coffee -> gets lost in the woods (blackwood / Gliricidia sepium) against a black molasses sky which obscures the path to an equally bleak / dark dead-end leavened only by white cane acting as a thin ribbon of midnight sun
Quality   12.3 / 20
Cousin & companion to Barba + a raft of other "varietals" so designated by Xoco Gourmet based on imprecise phenotype (appearance) rather than more definite genotype (genetics).

This chocolate lacks any uniquely identifiable characteristics. The Johe type a green-ripened-to-yellow nippled-apex pod with semi-warty skin that belongs in the generalized Amelonado crossbreed family of Central America.

If these are the kind of seedlings which Xoco plants in the millions across the countryside, then they might pose a risk, potentially a hazard, to traditional landraces (old time cacáo) that will lose the battle to this army of proliferating upstarts. From the vantage of species conservation, it presents a grave concern; doubly so for mediocre flavor outcomes (which could be related to post-harvest as much as genetics).

Let's hope this bar is an unrepresentative batch & better results await improved preparations.

INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter

Reviewed July 17, 2013

  

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