Box Chocolate Review

Christopher Norman

Info Details
Country USA   (NYC)
Style Rustic      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Intensity
Complexity
Impact
Retrodowngrade
Presentation   5 / 5
true artisan; stunning exhibit-quality visuals, using painterly designs like stained glass on chocolate tiles &, for the most part, the appeal stops there
Aromas   2.2 / 5
wax
Textures/Melt   5.1 / 10
Shells: crisp, clean chocolate robes heighten the rush that often deliver vacancy at the center
Centers: interiors a textured start & finish of Nestlé’s Quik / powder whip
Flavor   37.8 / 50
maturing over the years; what was once fast-blast expensive filler, very extovert (overstating the obvious past the point of repair), then grew timid, & nowadays displays better balances, tilting slightly in favor of infusions, splitting the difference between extremes, using more harmonized tuning forks on the taste buds
Quality   19.6 / 30
A line in continual flux. Keep watch.
Selections
Couverture: Schokinag
FILLED CHOCOLATE
Champagne Truffle – sweet hit effervescence & an acutely warm finish
Coconut Curry - drawn w/ maximum overkill highlighted by an expectant opening, feverishly realized by a hot pepper rise at mid-course & a never-ending spiked decay
White Citrus – life-like chalk
Cinnamon – good couverture cover; stale interior
Unidentified - roasted rubber scraped from the scene of the accident
Gianduja – all-hazelnut butter skid-spam
White Rose – funerial spray, losing all subtlety the pretension
White Lime Cheesecake – xeroxed straight from the patisserie carousal
Espresso – trim & true; dreg texture; formidable
Pyramid – liqueur lightness; an enigma w/out mystery; nice
Dark Cherry – infused robotussin syrup
Caramel – maple scotch; solid center-point flavor

Bars
Dark Pistachio – neutral to the point of surrender
Dark Ginger – accurately balanced; sings on this side of ginger beer & ginger burn
White Chocolate Macadamia – minimally acceptable
Hazelnut Gianduja – see Gianduja above (RE: hazelnut blur)
Caramel – soft caramel overtaken by Dark Choc stronger than the usual CN/ Schokinog base
Spicy Pecan – elements never turn over into any identity
Bitter Sweet Crunch - 72% w/ nibs; texture of crunchy glass bits; tastes of brown sugar, timid cocoa + cinnamon, all doing nothing & going nowhere together

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