Color:	as blonde as chocolate gets
Surface:	immaculate complexion
Temper:	matte beauty spa treatment
Snap:	subsonic

grain-fed cow's milk churns up almond toffee
blands out somewhat to wax

Texture:	heavyweight body
Melt:	gelatinous pulp

trad caramel followed by a floral rush -- apricot blossom & rose water -- utterly sensational for a Milk Chocolate -> salted away into butter toffee -> slow dissipation thru milk powder to cream & then finally a near White Chocolate, albeit with plastic smatters, highlighted by lemon verbena -> afterlife spent in classic caramelized Milk Chocolate

Built on Valrhona's considerable Andoa blend, this Milk Chocolate exudes a rarity... among the most floral patterns, at least early on, from a seed mix that cuts thru the dairy so admirably & with such impressionism, even at 39% (most of which feels, however, larded in favor of cocoa butter more than cocoa mass & the listing of ingredients below bears it out).

At impact it registers a 9.9 on the seismic meter. And while the progression melts into diminishing returns to sink to its ultimate upper-middling rating, the élan vital never disappears entirely either. Clearly lab-tested & practically bullet-proof as Valrhona throws its considerable weight & resources at this bar.

A positive addition to the Milk Choc category. Put it on the bucket list of chocolate-gets for, as Anatole also wrote, a pleasure missed today is missed forever.

INGREDIENTS: sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, lecithin

Reviewed September 17, 2014