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Info Details
Country Spain   
Type Dark   (71%)
Strain Ocumare   (Criollo group)
Source Venezuela   (Aragua; Ocumare de la Costa Valley)
Flavor Naked   
Style Old School      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
Double homicide: difficult to detect the greater Chocovic’tim – the cacáo bean or the tastebud
Appearance   4.3 / 5
Color: used to be easy to spot Ocumare a mile away – so red; here now in dim-crimson against medium-dark leather-brown
Surface: scruffy; usual backside whirlpool
Temper: thinly polished veneer in-between the scratch marks
Snap: confident pluck; firm edge
Aroma   8.1 / 10
mix of dread & hope: classic leather, coconut cream puff & chestnut -> freshly-torched hay in white pepper straight from the llanos -> raisin-licorice
Mouthfeel   12.4 / 15
Texture: starts tough & dry; swells big & unctuous
Melt: long lifeline; wears well & warm
Flavor   45.6 / 50
nearly identical entrance as the Aroma: cocoa-nut (cacáo + coconut) backed in leather -> turns over serene blackstrap raisin & licorice -> butter all over... -> ... more interminable butter... then, patience rewarded, it gets interesting -> an anisette moment (pinus patula) -> multiplied by spices (cedar / nutmeg / cardamom) for pitanga -> late hay -> biscuit 'n cream thing -> biriba -> ends as peacefully as it began but on chocolate-raspberry raisinet (gorgeous black-raspberry); some ash after-math
Quality   17.9 / 20
Lays down the mass yet has the feel of great fat too; CBS (Cocoa Mass / Butter / Sugar ratio) 5:3:2. Either way, just kills it – in the good sense. High CQ (Chocolate Quotient), with mounds of core chocolate flavor & fairly archetypal Ocumare (though most of the high notes have been roasted off, leaving behind plain ‘n simple / long ‘n strong).

In the past this bar suffered similarly to its Guaranda labelmate; C‘vic giving it a good burning (generally contraindicated for Ocumare) before soothing it over with butter lotion in a case of finesse over character. This counters with both. ‘vic’s tendency - conflicted by natural urge for scorched roast vs. desire to achieve more flavor than ash alone – is nicely balanced here, showing some restraint that keeps those flavor flags in the pocket for a resurrected ending that signals a maturation point which, for a company established in 1872, means the learning curve can be long in coming. Then again, good things are worth their wait in time.

ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter, soy lecithin

  

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