Ecuador 70
by Woodblock
Impact
CCN... a nightmare so real that even REM-puppets awake in horror.
Something over-rated usually entails someone under-qualified.
Ecuador for awhile has been banking off the fumes of past glory. Int'l organizations & the choc industry have played along, enabling the scam by certifying the country's crop as 75% "fine cocoa" to beg the question 'what do they know'?
The world is starting to catch on & the cacáoteros / Bromans / growers there realize they've a tentative grip on reality.
Ecuador should be put on the one list it needs to get off of: the blacklist.
Something over-rated usually entails someone under-qualified.
Ecuador for awhile has been banking off the fumes of past glory. Int'l organizations & the choc industry have played along, enabling the scam by certifying the country's crop as 75% "fine cocoa" to beg the question 'what do they know'?
The world is starting to catch on & the cacáoteros / Bromans / growers there realize they've a tentative grip on reality.
Ecuador should be put on the one list it needs to get off of: the blacklist.
Appearance 4.4 / 5
| Color: | electric brown |
| Surface: | undifferentiated plank |
| Temper: | bounceback |
| Snap: | low thrum; coarse edge close to crumbling (a sign of holding its Temper poorly -- slipping back into amorphous Phase IV crystallization) |
Aroma 7.2 / 10
bizarre mix between medicinal (herbal / traditional vines, barks, roots) & chemical / hospital (prescription drugs, antiseptic alcohol, synthetic eucalyptus, metallic compounds) + broiled pork grinds in beer
Mouthfeel 10.4 / 15
| Texture: | soft fudge |
| Melt: | glob-ular |
Flavor 28.9 / 50
a splotch with minor deviations for highlights, starting with a hopeful chocolate opening -> rapidly the Aromatics flood the mouth chamber as so much sewage treatment -> fabled "Arriba" astringency strips the cavity walls of the buildup -> butter blandishments -> bitter end with some caramel sludge (more descriptors apply but why engross further?)... suffice to list a grape aftermath
Quality 10.6 / 20
Mediocre.An agglomeration of woes.
For starters, the inferior genotype.
Then an uneven seed pile: some under-fermented (bitter & astringent, the latter evident early on), others overly so (putrid or slightly sour).
Next: drying & storage troubles? Yep. Musty & wooden.
This fledgling barsmith tries to balance it all out with a moderate roast / conch job... with limited success. If not for the fat butter pad, it'd choke the senses. And that's partially the problem: it never stands up; smothered over instead; suppressed. Of course, the alternative, as Obama reminds, could've been even worse as gleaned in the underlying malefactors which cannot hide either. Troubled thing.
A harsh reality-bite, coming hard on the heels of Woodblock's strong initial release from D.R.
ING: cocoa mass, sugar
Reviewed February 27, 2012