Impact
Nacional cacáo in Esmeraldas?
At first, it sounds about as strange & out-of-place as Polynesians in the Arctic or Inuits in the Tropics.
On second thought, cacáo & humanity have gone hand-in-hand the past 500 years in circumnavigating the globe to colonize foreign lands.
So how far is a trip upriver from southern to northern Ecuador? A lot closer, proportionally speaking, than the tip of the tongue to the belly bottom.
At first, it sounds about as strange & out-of-place as Polynesians in the Arctic or Inuits in the Tropics.
On second thought, cacáo & humanity have gone hand-in-hand the past 500 years in circumnavigating the globe to colonize foreign lands.
So how far is a trip upriver from southern to northern Ecuador? A lot closer, proportionally speaking, than the tip of the tongue to the belly bottom.
Appearance 4.7 / 5
| Color: | nothing slaty or even violet about these well-fermented chunks |
| Surface: | clean & dry (again, good post-harvest technique) |
| Temper: | flat |
| Snap: | n/a |
Aroma 9.5 / 10
classic... as in pre-CCN-51 & maybe even pre-1916 when disease wiped out many of Ecuador's old trees: both the cloud forest (well oxidized) & rain forest floor (mushrooms) + herbal green meadows -> add that Nib staple - banana
Mouthfeel 12.4 / 15
| Texture: | firm & sound crunch yet yielding on the tooth |
| Melt: | n/a |
Flavor 41.2 / 50
red banana (including leaf) -> aerates considerably, hi-altitude ions before plunging back down beneath forest cover into those mushrooms (woods ear) -> a little leguminous (green) / substantial bittering (especially a soiled element but nicely mineralized / fertilized) -> returns to banana leaf with latent cocoa shadowing it -> walnut shells in the marsh
Quality 17 / 20
Well-treated... a necessity for unroasted Nibs which could otherwise, if poorly handled in the post-harvesting, rip the mouth apart.
Nova mandates a thorough & correct post-harvest thru Eco-Cacao, a cooperative of properties started by friends of the label with an assist from APROCA & UONCRE. Together they turn the pH & the various acids thru the ferment cycle so only manageable acetic residues remain (lasting 4 days which exceeds the norm for Nacional types, counterindicated in fact to suspect a possible other genotype in the mix). Ditto for the drying of these kernels, discerned readily in the Texture, right in that 5%- 7% moisture content slot.
Some inherent chemical compounds may strike the pal (for palate) rather harshly, yet these very same constituents -- especially the nitrogen group -- form the pre-cursors which, during Maillard Reactions in the roaster, should transform them into winsome flavor.
ING: cocoa nibs
Reviewed January 4, 2012
Nova mandates a thorough & correct post-harvest thru Eco-Cacao, a cooperative of properties started by friends of the label with an assist from APROCA & UONCRE. Together they turn the pH & the various acids thru the ferment cycle so only manageable acetic residues remain (lasting 4 days which exceeds the norm for Nacional types, counterindicated in fact to suspect a possible other genotype in the mix). Ditto for the drying of these kernels, discerned readily in the Texture, right in that 5%- 7% moisture content slot.
Some inherent chemical compounds may strike the pal (for palate) rather harshly, yet these very same constituents -- especially the nitrogen group -- form the pre-cursors which, during Maillard Reactions in the roaster, should transform them into winsome flavor.
ING: cocoa nibs
Reviewed January 4, 2012