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Info Details
Country USA   
Type Dark   (75%; Ltd. Series #9)
Strain Blend   
Source (Trinidad, Grenada; D.R.; Venezuela)
Flavor Twang   
Style Classic      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
Jewish Xmas in the Caribbean, mon, with sugar plum fairies gamboling in gingerbread houses, & licorice dollops - covered in white chocolate - snowing where the weather outside ain’t frightenin’ cuz the solar fire is so delightening.

Back in reality: a boating accident with jetsam & flotsam strewn about, caused by too much boastin ‘n toastin of a borsch beet-le juice cocktail with mango sauce.
Appearance   4.6 / 5
Color: purple rouge
Surface: spotless top, crisscross quilt design w/ S-B’s Ibex struttin prouder than the peacock; weather-beaten out back
Temper: glistening / lustrous
Snap: high, thin pitch (nearly brittle, could spell trouble)
Aroma   8.4 / 10
mid-strength: warm leather coat over smoldering tobacco & mulched hickory chips; cut by cooler, Valrhona-type fermented tones that come up strong on the rubdown, generating plum brandy
Mouthfeel   11.3 / 15
Texture: somewhat stiff (forecast by the snap), breaksdown into thick globs like chunder pudding
Melt: uneven…then virtually liquefies
Flavor   39.7 / 50
bang chocolate twang w/ bitter bottom rudder -> sugar mercifully jacks-in... cherry off-loads to raspberry top notes & refracts red plum (Venezuela) -> goes green, 1st on tobacco (overlays the entire length) -> runs aground on Spice Island (Grenada) with nutmeg / ginger / pepper & a drop of molasses, which turns the preceding into mocha-black plum pudding causing the bar to lose its temper (in every aspect) & nerve -> green mango / guava -> greener pineapple, sours into un-aged rum -> really lost its compass, instead of Caribbean, points to tart Madagascan but w/ a thin tobacco veil for dirty acid miasma -> tries to reorient / reconstitute w/ a fighting mineral beet-juice stripped of any antique warmth -> yet still, deep in the shaft the plum fairy comes back, this time in a dried out prune-state; finishes off nicely on breaded chocolate cream
Quality   14.4 / 20
Muddled & jumbled; lacks clarity, feels jejeune (crib). S-B gets Cluizel-clever by color-coding the outside wrapper to match the inside flavor, in this case magenta, as Venezuelan (probably Sur del Lago) carries a lot of the plum notes reminiscent of Felchlin’s version of that origin. But oft-allies Trinidad & Domican Republic go to war in this hodge-podge blend of “Trinitarios”: tobacco of the former clouds (though hardly surpresses) insurgent acidity of the latter, & the clash is on. Then tiny Grenada, too unruly to ever be neutral, brings spices to the table (all good) & its own abrasion force (look out), & really tips the balance; reinforcing, indeed amplfying, both sides with acrid earth & acids. S-B would be wise to limit the bean selection as it did with its unfairly malignedKumasi-Sambirano. Some may still think all’s well that ends well - & this winds down well enough, though, like that problematic Shakepeare play, it’s a forced marriage in which the fairy tale meets the wall of realism.

  

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