Milk Chocolate
by Nahua
Impact
Adulterants & contaminants have been a tradition in chocolate. When cacáo circulated as a currency among the Mayan world, counterfeiters would pack the seeds with cheaper & more plentiful dirt. Europeans often substituted red-brick dust inside “chocolate” wrappers. Even today a barsmith can receive a sack o’ cocoa studded with nails, nuts ‘n bolts, & more foreign objects.
The milk with the cocoa in this bar likewise smell alien or perhaps just of cows feeding on Home Depot® supplies. Of all of the possible adulterants, that's probably the least harmless so eat up, kiddies, because this chocolate has a wide breach between the odor & the flavor.
The milk with the cocoa in this bar likewise smell alien or perhaps just of cows feeding on Home Depot® supplies. Of all of the possible adulterants, that's probably the least harmless so eat up, kiddies, because this chocolate has a wide breach between the odor & the flavor.
Appearance 2.9 / 5
| Color: | russet brown |
| Surface: | brushed in thick corduroy swales |
| Temper: | fading |
| Snap: | maximal for Milk Chocolate |
Aroma 5.1 / 10
Mouthfeel 11.8 / 15
| Texture: | gum powder |
| Melt: | surprisingly fluid |
Flavor 43.3 / 50
instant caramel, pretty deep & dark & vanilla-stained -> umami hits at the back -- almost salted in their intensity (no surprise here... 'savory' quite intrinsic to this seed lot) -> malt ensues -> a sugar rush surrounds the flavor core -> developing candy corn, underpinned in glucose -> orchid (vanilla again)
Quality 16 / 20
Built with Nahua's own fermented cacáo nuts.
Only 2 other bars utilizing Costa RIcan cacáo have ever been assembled into premium Milk Chocolate -- Fruitiion's lofty Gothic (the top-rated Costa Rica bar in any category to date) & Felchlin's Swiss creamery (fit for a bra). Add this &, apparently, Costa Rica cocoa, a much-challenged cocoa source due to local gene bank CATIE's dissemination of bulk grade seedlings bred for productivity & disease-resistence rather than gastronomics, makes for decent Milk Chocolate. Granted, the sample size of 3 bars is small, but in time it may well join a couple other Milk Chocolate 'naturals' such as Java, Esmeraldas, & Belize. The difference being where those destinations create fine flavors in either Dark or Milk, here's a cacáo type generally humble in its Dark presentations yet somehow compensates for deficiencies when combined with dairy. An intriguing chemistry to say the least.
A hyper sweet piece in which sugar contributes some to the seams showing thru the framework. For all the haphazard construction (exposed mainly in the Texture), flavors integrate incredibly well, in a kind of sleight-of-hand, sitting on a saddle between candy confection & culinary concoction.
A taste superior to its ancillaries which pull on the overall rating. Among the more noble uses of Costa Rican cacáo yet.
INGREDIENTS: sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, milk powder, vanilla
Reviewed October 13, 2014
Only 2 other bars utilizing Costa RIcan cacáo have ever been assembled into premium Milk Chocolate -- Fruitiion's lofty Gothic (the top-rated Costa Rica bar in any category to date) & Felchlin's Swiss creamery (fit for a bra). Add this &, apparently, Costa Rica cocoa, a much-challenged cocoa source due to local gene bank CATIE's dissemination of bulk grade seedlings bred for productivity & disease-resistence rather than gastronomics, makes for decent Milk Chocolate. Granted, the sample size of 3 bars is small, but in time it may well join a couple other Milk Chocolate 'naturals' such as Java, Esmeraldas, & Belize. The difference being where those destinations create fine flavors in either Dark or Milk, here's a cacáo type generally humble in its Dark presentations yet somehow compensates for deficiencies when combined with dairy. An intriguing chemistry to say the least.
A hyper sweet piece in which sugar contributes some to the seams showing thru the framework. For all the haphazard construction (exposed mainly in the Texture), flavors integrate incredibly well, in a kind of sleight-of-hand, sitting on a saddle between candy confection & culinary concoction.
A taste superior to its ancillaries which pull on the overall rating. Among the more noble uses of Costa Rican cacáo yet.
INGREDIENTS: sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, milk powder, vanilla
Reviewed October 13, 2014