Box Chocolate Review

Sadaharu Aoki

Info Details
Country France   (Paris)
Style Neo-Modern      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Intensity
Complexity
Impact
A box filled with double-negatives: Zen Phantoms
Presentation   4 / 5
sleek magnetic enclosure
brightly-painted technicolor-pieces the length of fingersticks
Aromas   3.4 / 5
Franco-Japanese fusion
perfumes with ineffable lightness (phantoms really)
Textures/Melt   8.9 / 10
Shells: thicker than paper-thin but thinner than cardboard-thick
Centers: ultra-glide
Flavor   38.7 / 50
generally invisible specters of flavor; color-coding really helps or else it'd be near-impossible to figure 'em out (although, alas, food-coloring slightly detectable on the taste-buds)
the one piece that calls for restraint -- Passion Fruit -- just blares away, calling into question the sensibilities of Aoki generally
Quality   22.4 / 30
Admittedly small sample size -- just 4 pieces (a 10-piece box should contain NO duplicates) -- but a little bit too precious / not much heft.
Selections
Couverture:
Coco -- White Chocolate ganache; timid

Bamboo -- studied understatement on Green Tea; reading these tea leaves in solitude, in a quiet alcove of the library, under the dim light of chocolate expands into a hushed dissertation on the subject; A+

Passion -- as in the fruit… way too overemotional, strident in fact & unhinged, even post melt-thru whence the chocolate feebly strives to catch & contain it

Fraise -- another near-homeopathic remedy; the strawberry so subtle that a plain Dark bar, with no additives whatsoever other than sugar, sometimes inheres with more of that fruit's tone than this; still, no denying the over-aching delicacy of it all

Reviewed December 2, 2013

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