Impact
From shit comes the rose – so said Ginsberg. Another artist, Sister Mary Corita Kent, put it less profanely: flowers grow out of dark moments. Cunning hedonist brown-thumb with split personality. Refined (except for the finish), precisely dialed-in, tremendous poise between light/dark, high/low, touch & punch. Valrhona earns its stripes on this one & scores them literally & figuratively right into the bar itself.
Appearance 5 / 5
| Color: | cocoa rose |
| Surface: | solid slate |
| Temper: | incandescent |
| Snap: | sharp cliff edges |
Aroma 8.5 / 10
deep chocolate bedrock underneath overhanging wildflowers
Mouthfeel 11.2 / 15
| Texture: | bit stiff, even stalky |
| Melt: | rugged in defiance of floral flavors |
Flavor 44 / 50
massive cardamom hit -> pure chocolate jolt -> settles into brown-sugared crush of multi-flowers: hibiscus -> shrinking violet -> alternating rose / cherry bender before frangipani shoots up & all sprouting out under fertile chocolate–coffee grounds for spiced fig effect -> finishes on pedestrian fudge brownie-out
Quality 18.5 / 20
Where analogies to wine start & stop. A bar with complexity to rival the bottle but also an excruciating range of unparalleled depth & height grapes hardly ever attain at once. CBS ~ 2:3:2