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EL SALVADOR
80%
70%
51%
Chocolate con Leche

by Cacaoterra / Shaw's
Info Details
Country El Salvador   
Type Dark   (+ Milk Chocolate)
Strain Hybrid   
Source El Salvador   
Flavor Earthen   
Style retro-American      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
REDUX REVIEW: An update & addendum from a barsmith in underserved El Salvador
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Cacaoterra / Shaw's set out to revive El Salvador's once-rich chocolate culture by tapping back into the ancient roots of cacáo groves around the country. A painstaking process, it's still young having only really just begun. Already, however, these early glimpses show the promise & potential of what could become a renowned origin in the modern era craft-chocolate movement.
Appearance   4.5 / 5
Color: 80% 2015: off-magenta; 2017: dirty vermillion
70%: slate brown
51%: crushed red earth
Chocolate con Leche: gorgeous apri-cotta
Surface: 2015: hefty 120g weight; shallow sub-bubbling
2017: smaller 44 grams &, other than a lunar crater or 2 on the backside, nearly perfect
Temper: 2015: provided by scored optics
2017 cosmetic-level matte
Snap: 2015: heavy as its weight
2017 still cracking
Aroma   7.3 / 10
80%
2015
dogwood & dog leather

2017
musk & nuts + plant fibers amongst the cherrywoods -> knocks on cocoa

70%
updraft more potent, oddly, than the 80% sib (redolent even of an unsweetened 100% cacáo-content)

51%
a paper pulp mill built on a mud patch whose products loaded up on a flat-bed truck, wooden side panels of course, share cargo space with melons & tobacco!

Chocolate con Leche
trad milk except very caramellow
Mouthfeel   12.1 / 15
Texture: 2015: lecithin slick
2017: clumped globs last longer than an MS-13 "initiation" (possibly a good thing? see how below!)
Melt: 2015: gel-swell
2017: halting / stilted
Flavor   44.2 / 50
80%
2015
moldy fruit & minor green / raw chocolate bite -> butter 'n wax for a lengthy stretch until forestry elements emerge, a vital mix of woods, roots, leaves & subtler saps -> semi-bitters tonic -> indigo -> raw cocoa

2017
those cherry woods in the scent translate into its fruit brandy, quite elaborate if short-lived, then a hard cocoa leavened by marshmallow -> dark brownie with black walnut shell -> balsam -> streak of straight sugar cane (excellent) -> leguminous, almost raw, aftermath

70%
quik tobac moves immediately to cocoa -> walnut fudge -> sweet spice cake -> suga' stream -> reverts to darker countenance... balsam / vanilla -> infra-mint

51%
cocoa malt -> vanilla -> caramel -> sublimated cinnamon

Chocolate con Leche
flintstone -> mildly caustic casein proteins -> max wax factor settles in yet cocoa ranges to punch thru -> vanilla caramel malt -> some distant milk-induced rear mold
Quality   16.4 / 20
80%
2015
The entrance + that long waxed deck (too much cocoa butter) endanger this bar toward collapse. Then the 2nd half redeems all without losing every defect that precedes it.

A slightly warmer roast would coax more definition out of this allotment's bio-chemical compounds.

For an 80%, however, this both holds up well in & of itself, as well as holds promise for the future of El Salvadoran cacáo.

(above) Reviewed July 13, 2015

2017
Batch L15917
Marked upgrade thru & thru, from start to finish, encompassing the harvesting to the processing. Plus, its perceptual sweetness factor could easily pass for 70-percenitle

70%
Batch L/12517
Everything that could go right, flavor-wise, does. Wire-to-wire, a joyride of pleasure craft. Even the subpar Texture adds speed bumps to prolong the sensation.

51%
Batch L06917
Yes, sweet, for sure, but not too in this 50-50 configuration. Especially the opening trimester which stands in & evolves finely. By the midpoint, the length exhausts itself & sugar overtakes the progression without totally effacing the constituent cocoa.

Chocolate con Leche
Batch L153117
A near total adipose breakdown at mid palate averted by this origin's stout stamina to cut thru the fat with gusto.

INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin (for Chocolate con Leche, add milk powder)

Reviewed August 2, 2017


  

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