Brazil
by Åkesson's
Impact
Fazenda Monte Alegre chocolate 2011... the likes of which have been seen years before, almost in the exact countenance, from Diego Badaró via Pralus. The former grows this cacáo; the latter manufacturers it; & now Åkesson re-labels it in a different guise.
Welcome to the interactive exchange of 21st century chocolate & its carnivalesque alternate-identities: a world turned topsy-turvy inside-out / upside-down - in tribute to Augusto Boal - where women rule over men, peasants over kings, children over adults, beasts over people, & the fool over everything.
Welcome to the interactive exchange of 21st century chocolate & its carnivalesque alternate-identities: a world turned topsy-turvy inside-out / upside-down - in tribute to Augusto Boal - where women rule over men, peasants over kings, children over adults, beasts over people, & the fool over everything.
Appearance 4.4 / 5
| Color: | relaxed umber |
| Surface: | well-stamped |
| Temper: | sugar crystals glistening (1st stage bloom or designer staging of ingedients) |
| Snap: | buttoned down |
Aroma 8.1 / 10
wet beans / ground level, forest smoke in the distant... the hallmarks of deep ferment / hi-roast point; true to form
Mouthfeel 13.8 / 15
| Texture: | smooth operator |
| Melt: | suave |
Flavor 40.3 / 50
pops a quik cherry, Brazilian-style (grumichama) -> burnt cocoa powder tannins -> progressively hardens into mahogany (Andiroba) -> softens to caju & starfruit flirting with a Madeira as cocoa butter melts its way thru -> coffee grains interrupt -> dark mocha persistence
Quality 15.7 / 20
Decamps early; mid-palate deterioration bears signs of bar-fatigue from being too conched out, the volatiles run off before their time as well as a roast that's flammable as gasoline - that Pralus trademark. None of the integrated supports nor feral essence that created a fully dimensional chocolate in its predecessor, making for a more confined / less considerable work.
Reviewed Autumn 2010
Reviewed Autumn 2010