Impact
Perfectly good & unexciting... like a Mercedes. Operates from strength to strength - all elements registered in a kind of equalized uniformity with no real high or lows.
Appearance 5 / 5
smart packaging
smart packaging
| Color: | burnt sepia: darkest brown (especially for Madagascar & 72% class), shaded w/ purple (sign of hot-button processor) |
| Surface: | gorgeous mandala-pod mold; slight bubbling |
| Temper: | gleaming centerfold |
| Snap: | a rifle; sharper than most Mads |
Aroma 9.1 / 10
cut diesel... well-defined & stratified: fruit-spice cloud (white grape / pineapple / tangerine + clove) under-girded by tobacco, schisandra, & birch; darker, more alcoholic on the break; very little chocolate
Mouthfeel 12.8 / 15
| Texture: | churns smooth & cool to a near ganache formulation |
| Melt: | effortless & steady (hallmark of good conching) if a little urgent |
Flavor 41.8 / 50
rapid chocolate out of the gate turns immediate nut bitter matched w/ clove then yellow-white fruit explodes; flavors stay stacked in parallel sequencing, long & strong until calm mocha-gin chocolate ending w/ burnt aftermath
Quality 15.6 / 20
Temperate, almost dispassionate, as if working off a set of precise formulas based in principles & equations... the bitter, the acid, the butter, the chocolate... all in an even stream. (CAVEAT: this bar occasionally goes missing some hallmark Mad notes - quartz & other kimberlite sister-minerals + higher mango/citrus from PH soil [could be rainy season harvest dried over heat/fire]).