Impact
The starter bar from Cacao Prieto. In violation of the C-spot’s™ ‘2 kewl 4 skool’ policy which cautions against reviewing a new barsmith until it learns the ropes (usually a couple years; though assiduous seed selection ala Red Star's Indio Rojo flexes the rule a bit), Prieto deserves early mention because it takes a fierce tact, an all-encompassing approach, when it comes to cacáo. Basically Tcho... cubed. Whether it can pull it off is future-pending. If it succeeds, it’ll be the most advanced move in chocolate since the company-town dreamers of Menier, Cadbury & Hershey’s™.
Will it come to fruition? With time, money, determination & luck.
Will it come to fruition? With time, money, determination & luck.
Appearance 4.6 / 5
| Color: | umber maroon (leaning on the purple / violet side) |
| Surface: | handsome mollusks printed into the mold; bubbling on the airside |
| Temper: | shellac |
| Snap: | loud for such a thin pour; chipped edging with pinholes |
Aroma 9.1 / 10
thick leaf clutter... Rogue Hispaniola and Cluizel’s Ancones rolled into 1 fat Dominican blunt (tobaccocoa) & olive leaf -> springs sopping wet to steep green tea -> then a De Vries-worthy móle tapenade overlaying wooden spices (mango wood / clary sage-cilantro) -> finally breathes out a gorgeous chocolate toffee; huge
Mouthfeel 12.8 / 15
| Texture: | soft |
| Melt: | fast |
Flavor 39.2 / 50
BANG... simultaneous stack right off the bat (chocolate, tobac, fruits galore [centered around apricot / mango] + a savored element of toffee-cream), nothing but a fantastic vertical climb highlighted in grenadilla -> just as rapidly tapers off to more baseline cocoa & bittering herb (gentian root) -> raw chocolate now with wisps from lemongrass, wintergreen & eucalyptus -> flavor matrix fatally disintegrates -> drifts off a hazelnut shadow
Quality 14.9 / 20
Sensational upper-tier opening – a head-blower on the order of Los Ancones -- that then fails to hold it. The inevitable downfall & balance of flavor rests squarely on the roast. 'Light', to say the least. Or 'uneven' depending on whether differing batch trays went into the oven to comprise this bar.
Too much heat & the front fruits burn up; too little & the more raw cacáo factors predominate as they tend to toward the finish in keeping with the ‘live-food’ vogue all the rage nowadays.
Shares some personality traits with Soma’s D.R. but, alas, this lacks the warmth of the Canadian maker’s craft. In essence it tastes of 2 bars: that vertical shear followed by a horizontal flat.
Prieto out of the islands (it plants one foot cultivating cacao in The Dominican Republic) still getting its sea legs, or, given its other foot squarely placed in Brooklyn for manufacturing the beans into chocolate, its subway legs.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed March 2011
Too much heat & the front fruits burn up; too little & the more raw cacáo factors predominate as they tend to toward the finish in keeping with the ‘live-food’ vogue all the rage nowadays.
Shares some personality traits with Soma’s D.R. but, alas, this lacks the warmth of the Canadian maker’s craft. In essence it tastes of 2 bars: that vertical shear followed by a horizontal flat.
Prieto out of the islands (it plants one foot cultivating cacao in The Dominican Republic) still getting its sea legs, or, given its other foot squarely placed in Brooklyn for manufacturing the beans into chocolate, its subway legs.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed March 2011