Box Chocolate Review

Fiori

Info Details
Country USA   (Seattle)
Style New School      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Intensity
Complexity
Impact
Confused conglomerate of too many ill-fitted combos that strive mightily to compliment & harmonize each other but result in a clang of discord. The chief villain: base chocolate flavor that’s MIA on all fronts - in the shell, the ganache, even the imagination – generally a blank slate.
Presentation   4.8 / 5
transparent; very utilitarian clear-plastic setting, w/ a serious all-dark, all-molded (no hand-cut) selection sitting in pleated brown-paper cups; intensely cost-effective & yet a jewelry case w/ the caveat that what you see is not always what you get
Aromas   3.6 / 5
infusion fresh w/ good chocolate standing but the latter withers & dies in the eating
Textures/Melt   8.3 / 10
Shells: medium shells w/ heftier bottoms
Centers: satin soft
Flavor   37.2 / 50
pronounced, sometimes flagrant; several combos clash; little-to-no-chocolate impact, attributable to a neutral dim-toned couverture
Quality   24.4 / 30
Flavor-forward can be a mask for substandard ingredients &/or lack of culinary skills. With Fiori it’s clearly a case of the former & only to a lesser degree the latter. Done on the cheap, ala Jacques Torres. This collection optimizes some obviously mediocre elements – a boon for the bottom line but a bust for the taste buds.
Selections
Couverture: various
Olio di Oliva – White interior / Dark shell + olive oil = chocolate-chip cookie dough... huh? Just do it for the textural excellence
Lavanda e Miele – a serious menage between soapy lavender, honey sap & chocolate which, though they stack a bit, compress to complement one another into an increasingly darker, heavier progression
Limone – lemon & Limoncello in White ganache & Dark coat confects up to cake in a proud fleur-de-lis mold
Yoshino – sesame-ginger in a beguiling yin-yang (cacáo mediating the soothing nut oil / abrasive spice... the earthen vs. the more ethereal); named after the district in Japan, though here w/ an emphasis on the noble samurai tradition of being able to decapitate multiple foes & then the very next moment serve tea & candy in peaceful tranquility... & both endeavors fall a little flat
Madras – tandoori chocolate verging on vinda-lu-lu in a Bollywood production; highly roasted, almost charcoal, flavors; curry & cardamom as advertised & then some - coconut seems undisclosed
Havana – cocoa mojito; mint & the bitter pith of lime have it out until habanero quashes both w/out killing off either; instead each goes to their respective corner for a continual stare down
Caffé – sumptuous; Milk center, cinnamon & citrus bang against coffee w/ equal force; contender for best of the humble set

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