Impact
Appearance 4.2 / 5
| Color: | pale magenta |
| Surface: | Zotter's regular high standard |
| Temper: | semi-sheer |
| Snap: | midrange |
Aroma 7.8 / 10
Chinese take-out..: sesame noodles with mud sauce, plastic chopsticks included (no, seriously) -> runs into some cassia flats rolled up inside a fortune cookie with this message: sugar is THE spice of life
Mouthfeel 10.3 / 15
| Texture: | greasy Wax Factor™ |
| Melt: | a durable good |
Flavor 40.8 / 50
hot cocoa (oddly) -> malt ball -> sweet-butter takes over the progression to diminishing returns -> raw cocoa corners & edges only at the very end -> closes out Turkish fig
Quality 15.1 / 20
The first "raw" chocolate from a top-tier barsmith.
Though Pacari's Ecuador 100 and 70 lead the "raw" category (which Santiago Peralta of Pacari calls "raw" with a wink & a nod -- just ask & see) its overall line-up cannot carry Zotter's portfolio for its width & breath &, most critically, its height which scales upwards of a dozen crown jewels in the collection.
Will this bar join that select group?
No.
Twee simple cocoa puff. Streamline & bland without being altogether boring.
Avoids one heat source (by waiving fermentation, a key step in developing many flavor pre-cursors, which could easily "cook" beans above the ceiling of 118F or so degrees to thus disqualify it as "raw", but in so eliminating it thereby limits the flavor range) but bumps straight into another: the conche, officially a gross violation among many a "raw" no-no.
Prior to molding the bar, Zotter readily admits conching the liquor "below 60°C" (140ºF) -- probably just a mean average (the sheer friction temperature could be quite higher). Whether this actually vitiates in any significant way the healthful properties found in cacáo remains speculative since no definitive testing has yet to be conducted on the subject. Nor is there any consensus on the definition of "raw" with respect to chocolate. Stay tuned... that could soon change with a pending study.
Before any rawnauts incriminate Zotter for 42% white death (re: sugar crystals), remember that most "raw chocolate" slobbers on cactus sweat (euphemistically labeled agave "nectar) or the newest trend palm sugar.
Then, for good measure, this bars plops down a heap of cocoa butter (felt especially in the Texture as well as in the taste) in softening the raw cocoa edges to rival Fine & Raw's use of it.
Taken all together the bonus to this "raw" bar compared to almost any other is that it focuses squarely on basal cocoa for actual chocolate perfumes.
What any of this other than flavor has to do with Indianer Urschoko (German for 'Original Indian Chocolate') remains a mystery. Mesoamericans, the probable inventors of chocolate, fermented cacáo (often for draughts); roasted it on open fires (as opposed to the modern practice of essentially baking it) & had no need to conche (because they drank it).
Oh well, a lifetime batting average of 1 out of 3 enshrines players in the Baseball Hall of Fame. For chocolate, given all its spurious marketing hype, it smacks of an authentic artifact.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, salt
Reviewed October 24, 2011
Though Pacari's Ecuador 100 and 70 lead the "raw" category (which Santiago Peralta of Pacari calls "raw" with a wink & a nod -- just ask & see) its overall line-up cannot carry Zotter's portfolio for its width & breath &, most critically, its height which scales upwards of a dozen crown jewels in the collection.
Will this bar join that select group?
No.
Twee simple cocoa puff. Streamline & bland without being altogether boring.
Avoids one heat source (by waiving fermentation, a key step in developing many flavor pre-cursors, which could easily "cook" beans above the ceiling of 118F or so degrees to thus disqualify it as "raw", but in so eliminating it thereby limits the flavor range) but bumps straight into another: the conche, officially a gross violation among many a "raw" no-no.
Prior to molding the bar, Zotter readily admits conching the liquor "below 60°C" (140ºF) -- probably just a mean average (the sheer friction temperature could be quite higher). Whether this actually vitiates in any significant way the healthful properties found in cacáo remains speculative since no definitive testing has yet to be conducted on the subject. Nor is there any consensus on the definition of "raw" with respect to chocolate. Stay tuned... that could soon change with a pending study.
Before any rawnauts incriminate Zotter for 42% white death (re: sugar crystals), remember that most "raw chocolate" slobbers on cactus sweat (euphemistically labeled agave "nectar) or the newest trend palm sugar.
Then, for good measure, this bars plops down a heap of cocoa butter (felt especially in the Texture as well as in the taste) in softening the raw cocoa edges to rival Fine & Raw's use of it.
Taken all together the bonus to this "raw" bar compared to almost any other is that it focuses squarely on basal cocoa for actual chocolate perfumes.
What any of this other than flavor has to do with Indianer Urschoko (German for 'Original Indian Chocolate') remains a mystery. Mesoamericans, the probable inventors of chocolate, fermented cacáo (often for draughts); roasted it on open fires (as opposed to the modern practice of essentially baking it) & had no need to conche (because they drank it).
Oh well, a lifetime batting average of 1 out of 3 enshrines players in the Baseball Hall of Fame. For chocolate, given all its spurious marketing hype, it smacks of an authentic artifact.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, salt
Reviewed October 24, 2011