Impact
Appearance 3.6 / 5
| Color: | light brown tinted orange-crush |
| Surface: | every minor defect represented - pinholes, divots, bubbles... – but only slightly |
| Temper: | generally flat except for plastic wrapper transfer |
| Snap: | low & heavy |
Aroma 9.2 / 10
super kind & friendly: strawberries ‘n cream lead onto bananas & mamon for red tapioca pudding -> undercut by cereal grains & sapote skins -> breathes out the trops of guava, passion fruit & soursop mingled w/ tobacco boxed by cardboard
Mouthfeel 14.3 / 15
| Texture: | great bubble gum to very chewy flesh / voluptuous, a breastaurant w/o any lecithin enhancement |
| Melt: | everlast, thru multiple peaks |
Flavor 47.8 / 50
drops its wad w/ fruits ringing right off the hook... galvanized in a finely svelte chocolate... initially fresh (mango, tangerine), then dried (apricots, papaya) -> thick licorice -> smashes banana cream pie – SPLAT - on the grill, complete w/ graham cracker crust at the edges -> shaded by tobacco leaf -> swirls away dark rum-injected mamey sapote
Quality 19.2 / 20
Major flavorgasm; practically every square-inch comes true & right, from the very physical, even athletic Texture, to the flow which leaves you with delirious exhaustion after so much fist-pumping the air thru the roof of the mouth.
OK, let’s walk it back a bit & split hairs: could use a wee more underlying chocolate presence for ever-greater balance & heft. Or, to really nitpick, how ‘bout the frumpy Appearance?
Just quibbling really over the beautifully bare essentials.
Yet one more exhibit showcasing D.R. among the very top origins.
Crafted with a hodge-pod of cacáos pulling beans from geographically dispersed Conacado co-op on the island, first brought to attention by Dagoba and Equal Exchange – two companies always eager to drop buzz labels like “Fair-Trade” on the unsuspecting public. A huge cocoa exporter comprised of 10,000+ growers, three-quarters of whom reportedly practice organic farming, although only a fraction certified as such.
Conacado nonetheless produces some fine-flavor seeds & tosses into the mix a manifold of cultivars that make up D.R.’s cacáo quilt.
Soma then executes a near-flawless processing – relatively minimalist approach - to let these beans sing at their own natural pitch – high & round. Concentrated too, but with space to add loft to differentiate from other recent bars from this origin (Rogue) that are so dense they’re more sauce than chocolate.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter
Reviewed Spring 2010
OK, let’s walk it back a bit & split hairs: could use a wee more underlying chocolate presence for ever-greater balance & heft. Or, to really nitpick, how ‘bout the frumpy Appearance?
Just quibbling really over the beautifully bare essentials.
Yet one more exhibit showcasing D.R. among the very top origins.
Crafted with a hodge-pod of cacáos pulling beans from geographically dispersed Conacado co-op on the island, first brought to attention by Dagoba and Equal Exchange – two companies always eager to drop buzz labels like “Fair-Trade” on the unsuspecting public. A huge cocoa exporter comprised of 10,000+ growers, three-quarters of whom reportedly practice organic farming, although only a fraction certified as such.
Conacado nonetheless produces some fine-flavor seeds & tosses into the mix a manifold of cultivars that make up D.R.’s cacáo quilt.
Soma then executes a near-flawless processing – relatively minimalist approach - to let these beans sing at their own natural pitch – high & round. Concentrated too, but with space to add loft to differentiate from other recent bars from this origin (Rogue) that are so dense they’re more sauce than chocolate.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter
Reviewed Spring 2010