Impact
Chocolate barsmiths are, as a rule, a sensitive bunch. They shunt criticism (fair enough) let alone the suggestion that some among their ranks make money while making mistakes.
Many want adult pay for child's play, i.e., desirous of triple-X prices for PG product.
Few professions offer that luxury.
Nova Monda is a different breed. It understands the reality that barring a tectonic shift in the marketplace, craft chocolate tends to be labor-instensive, slow, & painstaking, returning relatively thin profit margins.
None of that provokes them to stop; nor stops them from striving for antiquated perfection.
Like putting stakes in the ground by investing in their own cacáo grove around Esmeraldas, Ecuador. That old school pioneering spirit -- driven by ethical capitalism & environmental stwardship -- before & beyond the candy giants.
Chocolate the hard way... where going for the gold means rewards of intrinsic value.
Many want adult pay for child's play, i.e., desirous of triple-X prices for PG product.
Few professions offer that luxury.
Nova Monda is a different breed. It understands the reality that barring a tectonic shift in the marketplace, craft chocolate tends to be labor-instensive, slow, & painstaking, returning relatively thin profit margins.
None of that provokes them to stop; nor stops them from striving for antiquated perfection.
Like putting stakes in the ground by investing in their own cacáo grove around Esmeraldas, Ecuador. That old school pioneering spirit -- driven by ethical capitalism & environmental stwardship -- before & beyond the candy giants.
Chocolate the hard way... where going for the gold means rewards of intrinsic value.
Appearance 4.7 / 5
| Color: | pearl brown (hmmm, intriguing) |
| Surface: | nearly photoshop quality |
| Temper: | burnished |
| Snap: | outsized for such a thin pour |
Aroma 8.9 / 10
Zen & The Bar of Floral Arrangements:
candied violets + lavander splay above some rising leguminous vines, cocoa &, here's the mystique to this chocolate garden, slate
aerates spices
candied violets + lavander splay above some rising leguminous vines, cocoa &, here's the mystique to this chocolate garden, slate
aerates spices
Mouthfeel 10.7 / 15
| Texture: | bizarre bazaar -- dry, brittle wax... |
| Melt: | ... & yet timely |
Flavor 36.1 / 50
lays down a solid cocoa plank -> purple fruit (pomegranate) -> fleeting flowers over topsoil -> gentian bitter root / roasted char takes over the progression -> goes blackstrap dark, very claustrophobic, brightened only by a chalk outline -> peaks oddly enough in the after-linger on blackberry (foretold by the earlier purple fruit)
Quality 14.3 / 20
Somewhat plagued even after allowing for the rather high percentage of cacáo-content (80%).
A post-harvest beset with problems (insufficient fermentation / inadequate drying) plus a roast that elicits no favors. And before them a pre-harvest of questionable seed selection except the blackberry post-script holds genuine promise.
All adds up to a bar that bulldogs its way with a gruff bite in the same neighborhood as other similarly-weighted if nicer Ecuadorians -- such as DeBondt, Hotel Chocolat's Iara or the unsweetened 100 from C-Amaro.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar; CBS (Cocoa mass / Butter / Sugar ratio): ~2:2:1
Reviewed November 21, 2012
A post-harvest beset with problems (insufficient fermentation / inadequate drying) plus a roast that elicits no favors. And before them a pre-harvest of questionable seed selection except the blackberry post-script holds genuine promise.
All adds up to a bar that bulldogs its way with a gruff bite in the same neighborhood as other similarly-weighted if nicer Ecuadorians -- such as DeBondt, Hotel Chocolat's Iara or the unsweetened 100 from C-Amaro.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar; CBS (Cocoa mass / Butter / Sugar ratio): ~2:2:1
Reviewed November 21, 2012