Nicaragua
by Szántó Tibor
Impact
The Adderall-Nighter
As simple, for instance, as this bar.
The first time I took it I wrote a paper for an astronomy class that was out of this world. I could not believe it — I was so inspired it made me want to be a doctor!If smoking a lude or chasing the dragon have been abandoned in favor of designer drugs, how can chocolate -- even prescription-grade pod-strength high cacáo-content chocolate -- possibly compete with Big Pharma now that the whole country, & soon the world, is wired up on some doc's script? Or is it helplessly confined to a nostalgic pastime of a simpler, innocent era that never really was?
In the spring of that year I started to feel Adderall was my best friend and my worst enemy at the same time. Because I could not sleep I went to see my psychopharm, and she prescribed me Ativan to sleep. That worked O.K. for a while. But I really ran into trouble last year. I was up to 65 milligrams, and then during finals went to 80, even 120, milligrams, and I was just locked into this Adderall-Ativan cycle. My doctor seemed scatterbrained. [Editor's Note: maybe she was over-medicating herself as well?] She’d prescribe something but no follow up.
My baseline anxiety level would be most people’s highest anxiety level. The drop of a pin makes me spin around.
As simple, for instance, as this bar.
Appearance 2.6 / 5
| Color: | mudslide brown dyed in iron oxide |
| Surface: | another marred bar from Szántó Tibor |
| Temper: | dim |
| Snap: | recessed |
Aroma 8.7 / 10
gorgeous floral mocha-latte ("tansy blue", a sweetly scented flower grown in Hungary)
then grounded in flint stone
then grounded in flint stone
Mouthfeel 11.4 / 15
| Texture: | fine powder |
| Melt: | mumps |
Flavor 42.9 / 50
oaken cocoa -> intrinsic vanilla -> sapote -> a small licorice drop wants to turn toward molasses… doesn't… signals instead a darker / harder wood in flavor (Gliricidia septum aka blackwood) surrounded by porcini
Quality 15.1 / 20
Simple complex from the Chuno seed type that Szántó Tibor prefers to call "cacao blanco" (a once rare white-seeded cacáo which, now that everyone searches for it, finds it proliferating just about everywhere). Consider the paler side of Friis Holm's Chuno.
Delivers straight-on Flavor complimented by no-fuss prep (moderate roast / light conch).
Steadfast & consistent, even uniform, starting right out of the gate to the very finish. Pretty low / close horizon but quite the midpoint… where the bar deepens into those black woods & mushroom patch (Szántó Tibor's own liner note prove rather instructive here; click image upper to enlarge).
Very much in line with Zotter Nica or Barsmiths™.
Reviewed December 16, 2013
Delivers straight-on Flavor complimented by no-fuss prep (moderate roast / light conch).
Steadfast & consistent, even uniform, starting right out of the gate to the very finish. Pretty low / close horizon but quite the midpoint… where the bar deepens into those black woods & mushroom patch (Szántó Tibor's own liner note prove rather instructive here; click image upper to enlarge).
Very much in line with Zotter Nica or Barsmiths™.
Reviewed December 16, 2013