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Info Details
Country Italy   
Type Brut   (81%)
Strain Blend   
Source Dominican Republic   (Alta Gracia)
Flavor Crossover   
Style Old School      
lo
med
hi
CQ
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Roast
Intensity
Complexity
Structure
Length
Impact
Amargo belongs to the simaroubaceae tree family, tapped since centuries for all sorts of herbal remedies by traditional Caribbean societies, & provides shade for cacáo growing in its understory shadow.

What starts out a chocolate sunrise, with warm sweet-spots, burns to a medicinal bitter tonic, prescribed by the herban witch doctor himself - Danielo Vestri – in a piece of trick ‘n treat.
Appearance   3.8 / 5
tampered with; onset of early bloom
Color: magenta-tinted dark brown
Surface: scrabble board spells out V E S T R I; vast inter-stellar swale on the back
Temper: absorbent
Snap: high-pitched / concussive (more warning & cause for alarm); sheared edge, finely sanded, orange-tinted interior
Aroma   8.6 / 10
earth-clad: cowering cocoa shells go south underneath wood chips, leather, & tobacco leaf in Vestri’s heaviest roast yet; opens up to mamey sapote, honeydew melon, & coffee
Mouthfeel   11 / 15
Texture: biased by that early blooming, so dry & angular
Melt: fractious & uneven dispersal
Flavor   41.7 / 50
sweet chocolate sapote (the treat) -> transfers to ground cherry & jocote (aka Spanish plum) -> grapefruit acids mounting toward some guaro (alcohol) without quite reaching it -> forest undergrowth brings leveling bitterness (the trick) lurking from the depths -> bitter-acid entwine to produce quassia tonic (tree bark of Amargo) & goes for the throat in a pomegranate sunrise -> baking cocoa with wincing tannins rip at the back
Quality   17.9 / 20
Bark (from a tree) ‘n bite (like a parasite) though shy of ferocious; just enough sugared preparation (plus the twin crutches vanilla & lecithin – admittedly more a limited placebo effect) to control this from an all-out convulsion to the system.

A blend of sorts, obtained from seemingly various harvests & fermentation batches, spanning green to ripe, which helps account for an evolution that ends up transferring flavor more than transitioning it.

A good bar, such as it is, that stays true the elements & hits the intended target when an emergency dose is called for.

ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cacáo butter, vanilla, lecithin; CBS (Cocoa mass / Butter / Sugar ratio): ~5:9:6

Reviewed Summer 2009

  

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