Champurrado
by Xocolatl de Davíd
Impact
The Parícutin Volcano formed in a Mexican cornfield & for a decade grew on & off until 1952 when it finally ceased.
This bar contains hominy corn grits & chocolate. Ergo, the name: champurrado, an ancient combo dating back at least to Mayan times.
And in a departure for this site, a bar review just for the hell of it. No session chocolate; nothing too analytic (origin; varietal; technique, etc.). Just holistic, in league with Aristotle's take on "music makes hearts glad; on this ground alone the young ought to be trained in it”, echoed millennia later by Annie deFranco – “do it for the joy that it brings”.
Champurrado by Xocolatl de David… for the joy ride of it. Sneaks up as a volcano splaying lava all over... the fertilizer for the meadow beneath.
This bar contains hominy corn grits & chocolate. Ergo, the name: champurrado, an ancient combo dating back at least to Mayan times.
And in a departure for this site, a bar review just for the hell of it. No session chocolate; nothing too analytic (origin; varietal; technique, etc.). Just holistic, in league with Aristotle's take on "music makes hearts glad; on this ground alone the young ought to be trained in it”, echoed millennia later by Annie deFranco – “do it for the joy that it brings”.
Champurrado by Xocolatl de David… for the joy ride of it. Sneaks up as a volcano splaying lava all over... the fertilizer for the meadow beneath.
Appearance 3.2 / 5
| Color: | golden brown topaz |
| Surface: | a sore to eye sight… divots, pimples, bubbles, burbles flakes, et.al. |
| Temper: | having an off day |
| Snap: | seething |
Aroma 9.6 / 10
Necco® wafers, Pez® dispenser, candy necklace & taffy
cray-cray
cray-cray
Mouthfeel 12 / 15
| Texture: | micro-crystals |
| Melt: | nano-pops / rock candy |
Flavor 44.5 / 50
take those aromatic-prefumes above & multiply by rose -> lavender -> marshmallow -> soap -> vanilla musk
Quality 16.2 / 20
Looks terrible; smells wonderful; & tastes somewhere in the middle… the upper middle for certain.
No stranger to chocolate gourmands, Xocolatl de Davìd's boxed assortment entered The Chocolate Census in 2010. Since then this flavor-designer has developed tasting bars.
Davìd Briggs, that is, perhaps the Zotter of North America, but more up top-of-the-line if not over-the-top, compounding chocolate with black truffles, sourdough-olive oil, parmesan, & even foie gras.
Uncanny how the spices in this assembly translate into flowers on the taste-buds. Credit the underlying cocoa -- of precious little cocoa-flavor but evidently rich in floral tones (or at least in interaction with those added spices) -- procured by renowned furniture-craftsman turned cacáo-hunter Héctor Galván whose Mex-centric La Casa Tropical specializes in reviving the ancient groves around his home country. Back in his workshop, he & his crew process the raw cocoa into finished chocolate rather manually, including hand-tempered blocks of couverture from which Davíd works.
Deeply rooted & genuine to the bone.
A joint passion project, together these guys are absolutely gastronomic. Even the oft-objectionable soap note tastes… well, clean.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin; hominy, cinnamon, star anise, salt
Reviewed June 19, 2014
No stranger to chocolate gourmands, Xocolatl de Davìd's boxed assortment entered The Chocolate Census in 2010. Since then this flavor-designer has developed tasting bars.
Davìd Briggs, that is, perhaps the Zotter of North America, but more up top-of-the-line if not over-the-top, compounding chocolate with black truffles, sourdough-olive oil, parmesan, & even foie gras.
Uncanny how the spices in this assembly translate into flowers on the taste-buds. Credit the underlying cocoa -- of precious little cocoa-flavor but evidently rich in floral tones (or at least in interaction with those added spices) -- procured by renowned furniture-craftsman turned cacáo-hunter Héctor Galván whose Mex-centric La Casa Tropical specializes in reviving the ancient groves around his home country. Back in his workshop, he & his crew process the raw cocoa into finished chocolate rather manually, including hand-tempered blocks of couverture from which Davíd works.
Deeply rooted & genuine to the bone.
A joint passion project, together these guys are absolutely gastronomic. Even the oft-objectionable soap note tastes… well, clean.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin; hominy, cinnamon, star anise, salt
Reviewed June 19, 2014