Color:	Thanh Long: burnt orange tickled pink Chanchamayo 63%: very dark; nearly black cherry Chanchamayo Blanc: lemon ivory Mexique La Joya: alluring with a drop of hazelnut-blonde (betokened white-seeded cacáo) Congo 63%: orange-u-tan(g)
Surface:	competent clean
Temper:	Dark Bars: dimmer switch on Chanchamayo Blanc: soft beam
Snap:	major shout outs

Chanchamayo 63%
Peru; Junín Province
sour peanuts, yes, peanuts 'n vinegar
add lucuma for some sweet 'n sour peanuts
herbal greens
all supported by roasted cocoa backbone on a flint stone

Chanchamayo Blanc
super true to the cocoa butter
hardly a whiff of dairy & sugar
all butter with resonating cocoa + wood bark
stellar

Mexique La Joya
Mexico; Tabasco; Tulipán; Finca La Joya
another fermentary, this one not dried spices but sweaty spices (especially Mex tarragon) + fine wood shavings & a nod to its color (see above)

Congo 63%
chocolate transmogrified
comes out a delicate bud, a cowering flowering, coiled to blossom then springs forth the savannah woodlands to cologne-up a sweet musk
aerates pipe tobacco &, with all the surrounding woods, the pipe + chenille-stem pipe-cleaner too!

Thanh Long
Vietnam; Ben Tré Province
caramelized cream / cocoa gotu-kola / Milk Dud^® dudette

Texture:	round fat-grains
Melt:	elapsed

Chanchamayo 63%
strong cocoa entrance flees in flavor of a thin butterscotch that runs the underlying to that resembling its color -> ramps up the acidity (as foretold in the Aroma) to naranjilla -> currant -> passion fruit & hangs out there for the loooooonngest......... a virtual fruit cocktail-turned-cold rum toddy

Chanchamayo Blanc
cocoa nib -> caramel -> vanilla -> Milk Chocolate! -> more caramel.... endless caramel -> cake frosting -> lemon-peach

Mexique La Joya
inviting milk pretense -> sweet white fruit lining goes brazen on citrus (grapefruit) -> another alcoholic, call it 'Tequila Sunset' with a stringent grip

Congo 63%
sassafras-chocolate (superb) -> brown suga -> middle fruit spot -- cara cara blood orange (glorious... but catch it before it dissipates) -> sassafras all night long... root beer float -> almandine -> cocoa tannin close

Thanh Long
no ordinary Milk Dud^® but black fudge toffee -> cocoa cola (the overhang from gotu kola in the Aroma) -> woods ear unto alba mushroom -> streaking white fruits (lychee + rambutan)

Chanchamayo 63%
This a redux review of Chanchamayo 63% from 2019 which in turn then updated-revised the 70% Noir Bar from 2013. Consider this the li'l sis of that.
No wonder Morin sets this in a semi-sweet 37% sugar bed. A real cutter. As in cuts thru. The kind that even pierces palettes fatigued by so many rounds of chocolate.
Pardon the pun but, Frankly, A. Morin performs admirably to restrain a top-heavy bevy of acids by soaking the sugar cane in it to synergize those alcoholic FXs, without which this bar might just prove a base solvent to dissolve the tongue. As such, he deserves a humanitarian award for mercy upon all the drooling drunks out there in chocodom.

Chanchamayo Blanc
Fab White. Unique in its cocoa mass conveyance despite being solely the fat of the seed. Only toward the end does any semblance of conventional White Chocs appear. Seed selection, lipid extraction & roast calibration at artisan heights.

Mexique La Joya
If only the flavor approximated the aroma.
Similar in some respect to Chancamayo (see bar above) but without the restraint. For years this property -- Finca La Joya -- fobs itself off as a legacy cacao of heirloom quality never producing commensurate tasting chocolate.
It assume the persona, no, the conceit, of an ornery octogenarian who insists on being a super-model (a role reserved only for Jeanne Calment -- see intro above).
Someone please tell La Joya to drop the pretense & just settle on the bulk market. Something about either the gene pool, the soil, the water or the hand that picks the pods just goes begging for better. An embarrassment to Mexico's historical standing; unless prickly cacti bars stinging the T-buds (T for Taste) suit the purpose.

Congo 63%
Super friendly. Calibrated precisely at 63% -- right at the crossroads of mass-market & connoisseurship. Fun 'n flounce / serious 'n substantial. Morin nails it.

Thanh Long
Wa wa wee wa. Thanh Long, accent on the second syllable... goes the distance. Longer than long. Exceptional.
Ben Tré regional cacáos tend toward brassy, even abrasive occasionally. A. Morin's cream quotient really sublimates the acidity -- pitched right at 48% cacáo-content -- to fructify into translucent fruit flesh.
Masterful.

Summing up these 4 origins: quite the tour de global force.

INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, sunflower lecithin (for Thanh Long & Chanchamayo Blanc add whole milk powder)

Reviewed July 12, 2021