Box Chocolate Review

Grocer's Daughter

Info Details
Country USA   (Empire, MI)
Style Rustic      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Intensity
Complexity
Impact
Kitchen enterprise operating under the motto “a better world chocolate” by employing for its couverture Vintage Plantations which purports to play a role in the Rainforest Conservation Alliance.
Presentation   3 / 5
plain & simple packaging; mostly hand-thrown pieces; (NOTE: chocolates are set in pleated paper cups which fail to hold them in place during shipping, causing surface bruising /minor chipping. This didn’t alter flavors in any way but be mind if sending as a gift)
Aromas   2.8 / 5
recessed
Textures/Melt   6.7 / 10
Shells: thick housing; working middle class fudge
Centers: generally more firm than creamy (approximately a1:1.5 ratio) w/ a bit of grit lending a rustic, homemade feel; melts thick & rich
Flavor   34.8 / 50
inventive highs & creative lows
Quality   20.9 / 30
Employs the rarely-used Vintage Plantations couverture crafted from Ecuador’s famed ‘Nacional’ bean stock – a bold chocolate & choice. Despite this, infusions tend to get the better of the chocolate. Overall, an uneven line, apprenticeship quality; trial-&-error feel short on culinary skill.
Selections
Couverture: Vintage Plantations
Arriba – chocolate stands in well enough on its own; lightly creamed, accenting the Ecuadorian Nacional cacáo’s inherent blackberry notes creating violet floral overtones; sensational
Pomegranate - misnomer ; ginger dominator, pomegranate an acidic extender; both baldly countering deep chocolate tone
Rosemary – initially herbal apparent, then cream comes to the fore; next, a combative chocolate, a combine that never settles in, especially rosemary & cacáo continue to bray & bristle abrasively
Lemon Verbena – opposite of its Rosemary herbal cousin; very relaxed, the verbena employed to alter the path of chocolate’s profile, down climbing the fruit & flowers into more earthen territory
Maya – dried strawberry sits atop this hill of chocolate which accents it until fresh ground hot cinnamon & chili combine to unveil a warm rose corollary that clears out thick blackstrap & balsam; rustic in homage to its Mayan roots & better than childhood Red Hots; excellent
Sea Salt – deceptive; best texture of the set; soft salt & honey caramel, no pull whatsoever (attributable to the sweetener), tapping a beehive seemingly from the Zambezi forest, so darkening it creates major mocha buzz against a play of salt grains

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