Señor Delicioso
by El Ambateño
Impact
Every now & then consumers in the Northern Hemisphere in pursuit of some chocolate fantasy should get off their refined palates & sample how the rest of the world takes it. C-spotters do this at the first chance; frequenting roadside stands in the tropics that offer a taste of down-home flavor. It gives an appreciation of just how far the oft-bitter seeds of cacáo have to come in order to create great chocolate.
This bar is typical everyday fare for Ecuadorians but with a difference. It contains cocoa made from beans classified as factory seconds or rejects -- the kind of residual stuff that no buyer for Mars, Nestlé’s, Callebaut, ADM, Cargill, etc., professes to purchase (even as they gladly do), nor the Fair-Trade, UTZ, Bio-for-Life certifiers, let alone the P2P (Person-to-Person) direct-traders (Askinosie, Rogue, Zotter et.al.).
However, their relatively low platelet (or bacterial-count) qualifies these beans in this bar for the designation, strangely enough. calidad de exportacion.
In other words, “export quality”... a phrase to make locals feel re-assured about this 'gringo-safe' product.
This bar is typical everyday fare for Ecuadorians but with a difference. It contains cocoa made from beans classified as factory seconds or rejects -- the kind of residual stuff that no buyer for Mars, Nestlé’s, Callebaut, ADM, Cargill, etc., professes to purchase (even as they gladly do), nor the Fair-Trade, UTZ, Bio-for-Life certifiers, let alone the P2P (Person-to-Person) direct-traders (Askinosie, Rogue, Zotter et.al.).
However, their relatively low platelet (or bacterial-count) qualifies these beans in this bar for the designation, strangely enough. calidad de exportacion.
In other words, “export quality”... a phrase to make locals feel re-assured about this 'gringo-safe' product.
Appearance 2.9 / 5
| Color: | dry dirt |
| Surface: | dusty |
| Temper: | ill-tempered |
| Snap: | a pocket rock... walls striated in canyon layers |
Aroma 7.7 / 10
fresh forest floor moss & vines -> coconut -> cocoa -> nut woods -> ishpingo (the latter tell-tale CCN-51)
Mouthfeel 11.5 / 15
| Texture: | coarse / granular |
| Melt: | rounds up spherical fat |
Flavor 40.6 / 50
mild-cocoa interlaces sweet-sugar flirting with starfruit though never realizes it -> plantain -> coconut -> wafer biscuit, graham cracker, & cream -> banana -> white fruit (cherimoya, biriba & honeydew melon) -> dissolves into cinnamon
Quality 14.1 / 20
Gourmet gringos might recognize this as a Taza-type chocolate: low process; no conching; very fat. Swings either way between drinking & eating chocolate.
Though sugar never makes it onto the list of ingredients, mounds of it made it into this bar. Damn, they racked it in... easily 40+% of the total contents. Nothing misleading or misrepresentative – the populous by now so ingrained with refined white cane that it’s expected; hence, unnecessary to point it out by printing it on the wrapper.
Ultimately, Ambateño delivers but a glimpse of cocoa, to the very country that grew it, while administering a booster shot of sugar.
The economic math: beans rejected as factory irregulars + cheaper commodity sugar = enticing profit margins.
All in all, not too bad.
Reviewed April 2011
Though sugar never makes it onto the list of ingredients, mounds of it made it into this bar. Damn, they racked it in... easily 40+% of the total contents. Nothing misleading or misrepresentative – the populous by now so ingrained with refined white cane that it’s expected; hence, unnecessary to point it out by printing it on the wrapper.
Ultimately, Ambateño delivers but a glimpse of cocoa, to the very country that grew it, while administering a booster shot of sugar.
The economic math: beans rejected as factory irregulars + cheaper commodity sugar = enticing profit margins.
All in all, not too bad.
Reviewed April 2011