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Info Details
Country San Principe   
Type Flavored   (Raisins; Cacáo Pulp; Dark 70%)
Strain Monka   (Amelonado; Amazon)
Source Príncipe   (Plantacao de Terreiro Velho)
Flavor Fruits & Flowers   
Style Old School      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
Epic chocolate-making. Flavored Gatorade™ (shhhh... confuses the liquor licensing authorities)... for well before, during, & after the game. "Grand Kru', so named by the C-spot™ (the official label calls it Chocolate with Raisins & Cocoa Pulp in Bitter Liquor) because a) this contains fermented cacáo alcohol as fine as Grand Cru wine &, more importantly, b) in homage to the nation of The Kru, perhaps the most African of Africans, who so resisted being taken into slavery that their would-be masters simply gave up trying.

Mad-genius Claudio Corallo, the Cacáo Jones of the trade, knows each & every one his beans better than house pets. He grows & harvests them himself. No one is more committed. He tends to a humble &, until now, neglected varietal (a direct descendent of the 1st cacáo transplanted to Africa from Brazil in 1822 so we’re tasting some history) which had been a dried-out seed of an underdog that lay for years in a dark corner until Claudio cut some bush & the rains came... then the sun shone. What he coaxes out rivals a big sound from a tiny violin - basically making him a virtuoso - & this is his masterwork. It probably enjoys cult status back in his homeland of Italy, where intensely proud & moral men no doubt sacrifice their virgin daughters for it.
Appearance   5 / 5
Color: brown shoe
Surface: outsized Chunky bar or Mayan ziggernaut
Temper: thin shellac
Snap: subterranean / cavernous
Aroma   8.7 / 10
AA – alcoholic aromatherapy: plum brandy, ether spirits -> candied prunes of Viennese / East Euro variety -> tertiary aromatics of chocolate wood, dry earth, roasted coat
Mouthfeel   13.2 / 15
Texture: some grit, some crystals, some flakes...
Melt: ... some fire, some air, some water...
Flavor   45.1 / 50
Pulp Friction... kick-starts table sugar -> plum brandy -> exothermic heat rising up to prune cognac -> raisin disintegration merges w/ ripping pulp & mutates into a force-multiplier... black cherry cordial -> apricot -> Grand Marnier -> numb tongue
Quality   19.6 / 20
Chocolate a besotted bystander – sort of. Authenticated old school in which wrinkled raisins, cacáo pulp alcohol, & the bean’s tightly-fermented acidity (up to 2 weeks?) galvanize & work in convolution, a millimeter-precise tandem where chocolate flavor lurks invisibly but vitally as the vapors make their way thru it like an ethernet. Distillers in Armagnac should appreciate; multi-structured & highly credentialed.

  

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