Impact
Alan McClure of Patric is extremely particular. Ever since its inception, he has produced a single line from a single origin – Madagascar; the one & only, to make chocomanes think he’s just been sleepin on it. That is... until this.
Breaking free from a self-imposed monogamy, the expanded line-up pairs the most feminine of cacáos (again, those Madagascars) to arguably the most masculine – Venezuela’s Rio Caribe.
This bar stays all-male; more a cup of coffee than a bar of chocolate & closer to skinny dipping in carob than Rio Caribe, swimming against the current that streams to the MGMT lyric ‘.. fated to pretend’.
Breaking free from a self-imposed monogamy, the expanded line-up pairs the most feminine of cacáos (again, those Madagascars) to arguably the most masculine – Venezuela’s Rio Caribe.
This bar stays all-male; more a cup of coffee than a bar of chocolate & closer to skinny dipping in carob than Rio Caribe, swimming against the current that streams to the MGMT lyric ‘.. fated to pretend’.
Appearance 5 / 5
| Color: | jet brown w/ a splash of magenta |
| Surface: | gold-plated, err... brown-plated; absolutely 100% flawless save for a tiny backside dimple– the Cindy Crawford beauty mold to this stunner - & the large ‘P’ engraved in the bar stands for Perfection as much as Patric |
| Temper: | hi-wattage |
| Snap: | tight & short, breaking rocks really; straight edge |
Aroma 8.8 / 10
claustrophobic: dried moss & leather (shades of unsmoked PNG – the ‘P’ in this case for Peat & Pleather [small scent of plastics]) -> rocket herb (green & nutty) -> vein of cream cheese -> cinnamon-coffee simmers beneath -> aerates a breezy palm frond, the lone opening in an otherwise dense pattern; generally characteristic of RC but of a darker concentration thnx to no vanilla or added butter
Mouthfeel 10.5 / 15
| Texture: | initially a hard impact... |
| Melt: | ... frenzied disarray, then rapidly disappears |
Flavor 37.1 / 50
goes off coffee & hangs around there the entire length w/ brief interruptions from... intriguing frangipani -> chicle sweetens into fast dried-papaya spear, the build up to struggling for chocolate (forestalled)... cream alters the drama in somewhat calming coffee... finds carob instead -> recessed almond-toffee -> persistent tail thnx to astringent finishing grip
Quality 15.9 / 20
Strong & robust from the get-go, & no let-up, a pile-driver that sacrifices complexity to reach depth.
The result draws parrallels to another problematic Rio Caribe - the one from Rogue. This bar seeks to become transcendant by going deeper into it (almost Domori-like), stripping away the make-up kit (lecithin, vanilla, add’l butter base) in a well-enough conceived plot to let the soul glow but there’s no getting over the bean selection: hardly ‘superior’, nor outright inferior, even as it keeps sinking, for the most part, into the quicksand of deep-seated coffee grinds & carob pods to deliver value in its own right. In a word, ‘pure’.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed Summer 2009
The result draws parrallels to another problematic Rio Caribe - the one from Rogue. This bar seeks to become transcendant by going deeper into it (almost Domori-like), stripping away the make-up kit (lecithin, vanilla, add’l butter base) in a well-enough conceived plot to let the soul glow but there’s no getting over the bean selection: hardly ‘superior’, nor outright inferior, even as it keeps sinking, for the most part, into the quicksand of deep-seated coffee grinds & carob pods to deliver value in its own right. In a word, ‘pure’.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed Summer 2009