Impact
In one way / out no way... drifts to another dimension beyond the Twilight Zone, Alice, Bible studies, sci-fi, string theory & the event horizon of a black hole.
It’s not supposed to be this good, period.
Doubly crazy from a start-up in an affrontal challenge to the C-spot’s™ ‘2 kewl 4 skool’ policy.
Zokoko might be a saw off the same branch of nursery rhymes in ‘one who flew over the cacáo bough’ but already chief broma-dens (tree-house denizens of Theobroma cacao) as they ratchet up the stakes, escaping a world surely slipping into theo-insanity by falling ever deeper into it.
It’s not supposed to be this good, period.
Doubly crazy from a start-up in an affrontal challenge to the C-spot’s™ ‘2 kewl 4 skool’ policy.
Zokoko might be a saw off the same branch of nursery rhymes in ‘one who flew over the cacáo bough’ but already chief broma-dens (tree-house denizens of Theobroma cacao) as they ratchet up the stakes, escaping a world surely slipping into theo-insanity by falling ever deeper into it.
Appearance 4.5 / 5
Color: | almond beige |
Surface: | heavily brushed & bubbling |
Temper: | soft light |
Snap: | almost requires forced entry; excellent integrity on the break wall |
Aroma 9 / 10
ineffably light (at least initially): cream lotions, massage nut-oils, herbal-honey tincture, fruitage mist + enough white chocolate / cocoa butter to mimic
Milk Chocolate -> with time comes the weight of dried fruit (that only-from-Bolivia pruned accent) in a mud pie
Mouthfeel 11.9 / 15
Texture: | gelatinous pulp |
Melt: | slow to slip the bonds |
Flavor 48.7 / 50
very black attack (black mission fig, blackberry & black licorice) -> wildly high coffee in the upper palate -> chicory -> black currant -> imagine the sweetest plum... then sweeten some more with honey, add Bolivian fuchsia -> chocolate prune laced with licorice -> pomegranate -> drops it on a black cherry
Quality 18.3 / 20
Michelle & Dean Morgan at Zokoko come to chocolate thru coffee. So they know how to grind. And roast appropriately.
While nowhere near etherealized as Cru Sauvage or even Oialla – also sourced from Tranquilidad Bolivia – for this is far more condensed (a 120-hour conche guarantees it), it ranks among the blackest expositions ever. In the same color league as the twinned-beans in the Araguani blend of the northern Andes. And yet so endemically sweet, the contrastive polarity both dynamic & stunning: black fruit / white sugar. Basically wine-critic Robert E. Parker’s fruit Cab driven thru the tropics.
Perfectly pitched on the overall weight, the internal ratios (CBS [Cocoa Mass / Butter / Sugar] practically 1-to-1 between Mass & Sugar with Butter refereeing one-&-a-half again as much, which partially explains the Texture, a trait that inheres generally to Tranquilidad), then the processing parameters... everything set right.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin
Reviewed July 29, 2011
While nowhere near etherealized as Cru Sauvage or even Oialla – also sourced from Tranquilidad Bolivia – for this is far more condensed (a 120-hour conche guarantees it), it ranks among the blackest expositions ever. In the same color league as the twinned-beans in the Araguani blend of the northern Andes. And yet so endemically sweet, the contrastive polarity both dynamic & stunning: black fruit / white sugar. Basically wine-critic Robert E. Parker’s fruit Cab driven thru the tropics.
Perfectly pitched on the overall weight, the internal ratios (CBS [Cocoa Mass / Butter / Sugar] practically 1-to-1 between Mass & Sugar with Butter refereeing one-&-a-half again as much, which partially explains the Texture, a trait that inheres generally to Tranquilidad), then the processing parameters... everything set right.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin
Reviewed July 29, 2011