Australian 70%
by Cravve
Impact
Peter Mengler of Cravve logs a lot of miles throughout his vast backyard of Oceania. Those multiple treks deliver the cacáo goods from just about every island there, making Mengler's Grand Tour of Chocolate the Pralus Pyramid of the South Pacific.
For this one, he comes home… to Australia & crafts one of the best bars to date utilizing cacáo grown & cultivated in that country / continent.
For this one, he comes home… to Australia & crafts one of the best bars to date utilizing cacáo grown & cultivated in that country / continent.
Appearance 4 / 5
| Color: | orangish ala Madagascar but with a drop more red |
| Surface: | excusing the release-mark & grease splatter, otherwise clean |
| Temper: | very neutral matte |
| Snap: | low bend / Milk Choc territory |
Aroma 8.2 / 10
tapenade -- thick brined olive paste, almost unprecedented in its intensity, atypical for the origin & surpassing even those few sources from where olive-scents are characteristic (notably The D.R. & some pockets of Central America)
olive pits
palm trees (with scraping leaves) planted in blue stone, a flint of which ignites cinnamon-cocoa
olive pits
palm trees (with scraping leaves) planted in blue stone, a flint of which ignites cinnamon-cocoa
Mouthfeel 12 / 15
| Texture: | mini globules |
| Melt: | choppy |
Flavor 44.9 / 50
cinnamonized-cocoa -> blue stone -> streaking & fleeting fruit (pineapple to mango) -> super dry wood (blue cyprus & mallee) -> dark fruit (pomegranate) -> dried fruit (banana)... all in & around petrified-woods -> spice returns attended by burlap + that bounty basket of fruit (add quangdong or 'bush peach') -> velcro-stringent cocoa
Quality 15.8 / 20
All right for all the wrong reasons.
Gripping astringency. Barely roasted. Conched only well-enough (Texture never a strong suit of Cravve's & this too agglomerates).
But an able ferment with a fruit punch for a pulp that penetrates clearly into the Nib for this bar.
Very modernist… austere & severe -- retro-American style or in this case maybe the New Aussie Rules Chocolate. Yes, reigning & streaming together in welcome ways.
Cravve performs a public service in taking Daintree's own cocoa & formulates it in a more worthy manner: neither vanilla (unnecessary for this cacáo type) nor a burdensome butter pad. In the process it just rips it.
The only rival to Zokoko's 66% & in some respects -- excusing the ancillaries such as Texture -- at 70% the standard bearer for Australian-grown chocolate because of it.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Reviewed May 14, 2014
Gripping astringency. Barely roasted. Conched only well-enough (Texture never a strong suit of Cravve's & this too agglomerates).
But an able ferment with a fruit punch for a pulp that penetrates clearly into the Nib for this bar.
Very modernist… austere & severe -- retro-American style or in this case maybe the New Aussie Rules Chocolate. Yes, reigning & streaming together in welcome ways.
Cravve performs a public service in taking Daintree's own cocoa & formulates it in a more worthy manner: neither vanilla (unnecessary for this cacáo type) nor a burdensome butter pad. In the process it just rips it.
The only rival to Zokoko's 66% & in some respects -- excusing the ancillaries such as Texture -- at 70% the standard bearer for Australian-grown chocolate because of it.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Reviewed May 14, 2014