Genius Loci
by Georgia Ramon
Impact
At the dawn of the age of aging chocolate, let's take a brief look-back thru a rearview mirror titled The First Geniuses which begins
It is so early almost nothing has happened.Later on the piece ends very pointedly -- literally & metaphorically -- about how our geniuses back then knew nothing. Including...
Agriculture is an unplanted seed.
Music & the felt hat are thousands of years away.
The sail & the astrolabe, not even specks on the horizon.
The window & scissors: inconceivable.
But even now before the orchestra of history
has had time to warm up, the first geniuses
have found one another & gathered into a thoughtful group.
... not even how to sharpen a stone to a deadly point.To all the chocolate barsmiths who, in this era of mass shootings & homicides, toil to manufacture bars instead of bullets.
Appearance 4.6 / 5
| Color: | slate brown |
| Surface: | Georgia-Ramon's Mondrian-style mould |
| Temper: | opaque shellac |
| Snap: | on the money |
Aroma 7.7 / 10
the dirty udder- / under-side of pork bellies
lemongrass / Pine-Sol™ disinfectant
lactones in the middle
oxidizes to partially clean light woods
lemongrass / Pine-Sol™ disinfectant
lactones in the middle
oxidizes to partially clean light woods
Mouthfeel 13.2 / 15
| Texture: | slipstream |
| Melt: | friction-free |
Flavor 46.4 / 50
lattice of soft chocolate works (fudge / brownie / chips / icing) soldered in white nuts (almond; cashew; pine; macadamia) -> cream backing against cocoa tannins -> blonde latent mulberry -> recessed hay
Quality 18.1 / 20
Genius Loci... maybe because chocolate outsmarts, gaia-like, the masters of the known universe, enlisting them to its service, in order to procreate, propagate &, dare say, profligate. Oh-so-clever cacáo. The brilliance of which convenes from an array of points -- starting with genetics to the origin & the resulting flavor, the body-melt, the side-effects like, ahhhh, satisfaction (better than meds; some say even sex -- now, c'mon now, really?).
In between add-in some human ingenuity... Sourced via Idilio Origins, that Swiss company specializing in Venezuelan cacáo. Then pressed into a limited edition production run by Georgia-Ramon to celebrate Idilio's architectural firm (jah, chocolate people are multi-talented like that).
Altogether they nail it, both in execution & expression. The result: simplicity itself (nuanced of course). Just the nicest offsets as complements (cream & creamed nuts) in a continuum of basal chocolate... & lots of it. Such a bountiful bar. A firehose really, minus the heat & pressure to re-define subtlety. Overpowering in its delicacy. Due in part perhaps to the rather balanced Barithmetic (re: Cocoa mass / Butter / Sugar ratio) of ~3:3:2.
Very purposeful. Of super-focused intent. A chocolate in which less = more. Basic formulation: (cocoa + sugar) x 1 year of aging rounds the contours, smoothed by the hands of time. In other words, lets the bean do the talking.
Ingenious.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, time
Reviewed February 28, 2018
In between add-in some human ingenuity... Sourced via Idilio Origins, that Swiss company specializing in Venezuelan cacáo. Then pressed into a limited edition production run by Georgia-Ramon to celebrate Idilio's architectural firm (jah, chocolate people are multi-talented like that).
Altogether they nail it, both in execution & expression. The result: simplicity itself (nuanced of course). Just the nicest offsets as complements (cream & creamed nuts) in a continuum of basal chocolate... & lots of it. Such a bountiful bar. A firehose really, minus the heat & pressure to re-define subtlety. Overpowering in its delicacy. Due in part perhaps to the rather balanced Barithmetic (re: Cocoa mass / Butter / Sugar ratio) of ~3:3:2.
Very purposeful. Of super-focused intent. A chocolate in which less = more. Basic formulation: (cocoa + sugar) x 1 year of aging rounds the contours, smoothed by the hands of time. In other words, lets the bean do the talking.
Ingenious.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, time
Reviewed February 28, 2018