Impact
Josef Zotter, linguistic & now aesthetic kin to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, adheres to the great architect’s minimalist dictum "less is more"... as well as "God is in the details".
Appearance 4 / 5
| Color: | dishwater blonde |
| Surface: | whey-faced |
| Temper: | recessed |
| Snap: | subsonic |
Aroma 8.4 / 10
triple-tiered almond platform: sweet oil, butter, & meal -> just enough chocolate mortar to congeal it
Mouthfeel 11.7 / 15
| Texture: | granulated paste |
| Melt: | slow |
Flavor 46.2 / 50
a Flavor so spreadable it virtually comes with its own onboard vanilla cone for this softee sans ice-cream -> in add’n to the Aromatics, add salted caramelized marzipan -> honey almond nougat -> spice action (mostly cinnamon / gingerbread)
Quality 18.4 / 20
Almonds can easily & usually get out in front of a chocolate to just annihilate it into a nut bar. Zotter avoids this with perfect force alignment in a pure, clean & rather delicate application with deceptive nerve & backbone.
For starters, peeled almonds & cacáo carefully toasted at 266ºF / 130ºC, featuring just a touch of cocoa mass, enough to call it a Milk Choc base but so faint & even slumberous to nearly draw parallels with Bernachon’s Ivoire. Whereas the Frenchman highlights almonds with lemon inflections, this offsets them with spice tones acheived via vanilla & a customized sugar mix (raw & probably brown) to lend those lightly caramelized notes.
The whole mashed & rolled extensively before conched at Zotter’s trademark short lengths (sub-10 hours, even as quick as maybe 2).
A class act.
ING: raw cane sugar, almonds (29%), cacáo butter, whole milk pwdr, cocoa mass, whole can sugar, whey, salt, vanilla, lecithin
Reviewed Autumn 2010
For starters, peeled almonds & cacáo carefully toasted at 266ºF / 130ºC, featuring just a touch of cocoa mass, enough to call it a Milk Choc base but so faint & even slumberous to nearly draw parallels with Bernachon’s Ivoire. Whereas the Frenchman highlights almonds with lemon inflections, this offsets them with spice tones acheived via vanilla & a customized sugar mix (raw & probably brown) to lend those lightly caramelized notes.
The whole mashed & rolled extensively before conched at Zotter’s trademark short lengths (sub-10 hours, even as quick as maybe 2).
A class act.
ING: raw cane sugar, almonds (29%), cacáo butter, whole milk pwdr, cocoa mass, whole can sugar, whey, salt, vanilla, lecithin
Reviewed Autumn 2010