Impact
No yawning matter, but murky twilight living up to its name only via the taste of a nocturnal fruit-bat from the wrong end of the digestive tract – guano. Once you step in it, all you can do is take novelist Michael Esterson’s advice from his unreleased classic – If Going Thru Hell, Don’t Stop.
Appearance 4.1 / 5
| Color: | midnight brown, tinted orange-red |
| Surface: | even; tiny bricks w/ signature logo |
| Temper: | glares & absorbs rather than emits light |
| Snap: | sharp flap w/ echolocation; redder on the inside |
Aroma 7.8 / 10
Arriba- Africa... dusty & musty but solidly concentrated; cocoa powder & coconut butter in the base -> dried flowers on top (otta rose, orchids [re: vanilla floral], angelica, & cherry blossom) -> musk connects it w/ a raw edge
Mouthfeel 11.1 / 15
| Texture: | angular for such high cacáo-content; round but clumpy |
| Melt: | prolongs dyspeptic experience |
Flavor 34.3 / 50
peanut (tell-tale Ecuador) & coconut oil -> a silverwinged angelica colors the profile w/ cherry blossom but also cherrywood board for a souring bitttttter (very African) that shapeshifts dirty cocoa -> cotton & helichrysum -> raw cacáo powder -> fruit break thru – blackberry & mamey sapote, quickly submerges back onto the cave walls -> bloody molasses -> evacuates small alcohol & witch hazel -> cocoa guano in the after-shaft
Quality 12.4 / 20
Murky & suppressed. Guittard practically owns the semi-sweet range (55-68% cacáo-content), but clearly out of its territory here at 91%. Overly buttered (CBS ~1:2:.5) & possibly rancid at that; plus poor, mismatched bean selection (some Nacional, probably São Tomé, + a basket of others in this 7-bean blend) make for a problematic fusion-fission.