Nib Bar
by Moho
Impact
Addiction generally owes to drug & alcohol abuse, or compulsive sex. In susceptible individuals however (guilt-ridden, depressed-types with food disorders for example), chocolate evokes similar behavioral reactions.
Due to its hedonist compounds of fat, sugar, texture & overall aromatic appeal, it generates chemosensory effects which, in a pharmacologic feedback loop, deliver several psychoactive agents it contains (methylxanthines, biogenic amines & cannabinoid-like fatty acids).
As a form of self-medication for certain conditions (e.g., hormonal changes causing magnesium deficiencies in the perimenstrual cycle before & during menses), it balances low levels of neurotransmitters to counter mood swings (think serotonin & dopamine).
In other words, chocolate cravings are real. Clinically real. Unless satisfied, the stress levels could cause borderline mental impairment & loss of impulse control.
This bar will set them all off with the added zeal of Nibs.
Ya gotta Belize this & not that... just might be the All-American (whether North, South or Central) Chocolate Bar.
Due to its hedonist compounds of fat, sugar, texture & overall aromatic appeal, it generates chemosensory effects which, in a pharmacologic feedback loop, deliver several psychoactive agents it contains (methylxanthines, biogenic amines & cannabinoid-like fatty acids).
As a form of self-medication for certain conditions (e.g., hormonal changes causing magnesium deficiencies in the perimenstrual cycle before & during menses), it balances low levels of neurotransmitters to counter mood swings (think serotonin & dopamine).
In other words, chocolate cravings are real. Clinically real. Unless satisfied, the stress levels could cause borderline mental impairment & loss of impulse control.
This bar will set them all off with the added zeal of Nibs.
Ya gotta Belize this & not that... just might be the All-American (whether North, South or Central) Chocolate Bar.
Appearance 4.6 / 5
| Color: | mud brown studded with ferric oxide filings (from Nibs) |
| Surface: | classic ‘hot mess’ - in a state of disarray but undeniably attractive |
| Temper: | hazy |
| Snap: | no whimper here; crack candy |
Aroma 9.2 / 10
lays out golden nuts on a roasted tip & Nibs in a chocolate reserve, all carefully smoked by sapodilla wood chips under an iron comal -> tobac + chicle latex -> breathes off fermented jipijapa (a type of heart of palm) & pacaya fern before blowing up some blue-fruit-laden cocoa dust... the last draft a suspicious sense of space / place – nearing a transverse shot across the Caribbean to an almost Chuao-like pretense; beautifully composed yet potent
Mouthfeel 12.4 / 15
| Texture: | a melée |
| Melt: | spasming |
Flavor 47.9 / 50
fruitbomb.com: instant blueberry-banger off the roof-of-the-mouth, scattering sugar crystals everywhere -> sweet pomogranate -> more purple fruits in the pandemonium (jaltomato / huckleberry; june berry) -> lightening into orange-red (papaya, mamey sapote) -> arouses a sweet flood of mango juice when Nibs, just getting started to exert their effects, as a chocolate-cover stroking the ripened fruit profile with a combination of finger-pads & nails -> caresses on the backside some chicle for cotton-candy F/Xs spun around more chocolate -> astringency applies a firm grip & plunges to the bottomless ocean of cocoa-coral
Quality 17.8 / 20
Feels of 67% SUGAR swapping out cacáo instead of the other way around. Surreal fruit-scapes; ridiculously exuberent. Moho packin’ ‘em tigher than a mofo, pimping these seeds so far out that parallels to Chuao are well-grounded.
Moreover, shades of Hawai’ian abundance but on a lighter scale. Whereas Hawai’i cacáo is endowed with deeply volcanic / tannic structure, this bar's berry-ripeness submerges & for the most part washes over a bean of relatively hi-CQ underneath (or Chocolate Quoitient / center-point cocoa flavor). And this despite Nibs whose vital components usually re-direct a chocolate toward darker / heavier realms but here inexplicably add to, rather than detract from, the fruit riot.
A sign of just how affectionate Belize cacáo can get, in conjunction with the sapodilla wood used for the sweat boxes during the ferment which retains a memory of that tree's own berries that impart a natural cotton-candy scent.
Addictive... to the last spasm.
Reviewed March 2011
Moreover, shades of Hawai’ian abundance but on a lighter scale. Whereas Hawai’i cacáo is endowed with deeply volcanic / tannic structure, this bar's berry-ripeness submerges & for the most part washes over a bean of relatively hi-CQ underneath (or Chocolate Quoitient / center-point cocoa flavor). And this despite Nibs whose vital components usually re-direct a chocolate toward darker / heavier realms but here inexplicably add to, rather than detract from, the fruit riot.
A sign of just how affectionate Belize cacáo can get, in conjunction with the sapodilla wood used for the sweat boxes during the ferment which retains a memory of that tree's own berries that impart a natural cotton-candy scent.
Addictive... to the last spasm.
Reviewed March 2011