Bittersweet Dark 2016
by Mason & Co.
Impact
Ironies & contradictions continue to abound...
The very far-seeing Dr. Arthur Kornberg wrote in his Serendipity in Science that in times like these, new technology disrupts. Which prompted him to quip that necessity is no longer the mother of invention but rather invention is the mother of necessity..... for who needed TV or radio or cellphones or microwave ovens?
Extreme poverty in India, from where this chocolate hails, seems incredible to those living in the “developed economies” & yet invention becomes a necessity even among the dirt poor.
Beggars & destitutes on the pavement of Mumbai may not have a shack - they sleep in the open – but many of them have email addresses.
A vegetable vendor dressed in rags, looking quite poor, talks on her cellphone then surprises further by pulling out a second cellphone while asking the first caller to hold. An ambitious businesswomen.
Little wonder then that India of all places defies the common-held view of cocoa farmers who toil in plantations from Africa to the Americas & beyond as being dirt poor.
Forgot starving farmers & child-slave labor. Come to India -- home to wealthy cocoa farmers. Further, in yet another defiance ripe for Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not, they enrich themselves selling shoddy beans.
Krishna is great.
*******************************************
Due to the inchoate nature of India's cocoa sector, & in keeping with the C-spot's 2 Kewl 4 Skool policy, this bar is unrated
The very far-seeing Dr. Arthur Kornberg wrote in his Serendipity in Science that in times like these, new technology disrupts. Which prompted him to quip that necessity is no longer the mother of invention but rather invention is the mother of necessity..... for who needed TV or radio or cellphones or microwave ovens?
Extreme poverty in India, from where this chocolate hails, seems incredible to those living in the “developed economies” & yet invention becomes a necessity even among the dirt poor.
Beggars & destitutes on the pavement of Mumbai may not have a shack - they sleep in the open – but many of them have email addresses.
A vegetable vendor dressed in rags, looking quite poor, talks on her cellphone then surprises further by pulling out a second cellphone while asking the first caller to hold. An ambitious businesswomen.
Little wonder then that India of all places defies the common-held view of cocoa farmers who toil in plantations from Africa to the Americas & beyond as being dirt poor.
Forgot starving farmers & child-slave labor. Come to India -- home to wealthy cocoa farmers. Further, in yet another defiance ripe for Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not, they enrich themselves selling shoddy beans.
Krishna is great.
Due to the inchoate nature of India's cocoa sector, & in keeping with the C-spot's 2 Kewl 4 Skool policy, this bar is unrated
Appearance -- / 5
| Color: | ravenous purple passion |
| Surface: | ok |
| Temper: | muted... |
| Snap: | ... anything but |
Aroma -- / 10
lactic acid funk over parched watershed dried into a hard ground shed of deep-rooted (lightly smoked / gassed) cocoa & grain
Mouthfeel -- / 15
| Texture: | rubber bounce |
| Melt: | chewy |
Flavor -- / 50
strides in a little gaseous then settles -> pablum + dried milk down the grain silo -> Job's tears -> latex befitting the Texture, some of it burnt -> back black fig & labdanum -> mite spice (calamus) -> smoked entail
Quality -- / 20
The 1st Indian barsmith to enter The Chocolate Census & just the 2nd bar in the premium scene to feature cacáo grown in India (after Zotter's adolescent 62% release). Hence the reason for reviewing it here & now, even if a bit premature.
A bit inarticulate; India's cocoa industry still learning to crawl towards, hopefully, hi-quality.
Zero quality control at the moment in fact because growers receive a good price even for unfermented cacáo -- often far in excess of the commodity rate on the global exchanges! So why bother? Especially with typical boom 'n bust cycles in the cocoa groves or better opportunity costs elsewhere -- like in rubber. Better still, in the revered tea gardens that gain renown around the world.
Indeed wealthy tea estates may also harbor cacáo trees making for an oxymoron on chocolate Earth: kind of literally 'filthy rich' (getting fingers dirty digging in the soil), amongst some starving poor Indians. Therefore growers could care less about cocoa quality, simply viewing it as a cash crop.
Given that India exports little-to-nil cocoa, & that its domestic consumption absorbs the capacity at any rate, hey, maybe free trade, NAFTA, TPP, etc., ain't all they're cracked up to be. Add more fodder for Sanders & Trump.
As such, the hard efforts of Jane & Fabien at Mason & Company could go a long way to developing a cacao-into-chocolate culture for India so that tenders do care enough to engage in superior practices necessary for hi-grade produce.
Mason & Company busily identify scattered old stand Criollos dotting the countryside around Kerala, India amidst the more prevalent 10 genotypes distributed by Cadbury. This bar, alas, decidedly in the latter camp.
At least these seeds underwent fermentation. Cured in plastic crates which creates a clean enough taste yet truncated, short on developing manifold & magnitude in flavor precursors despite fermenting for a solid week at an uneven rate, partially attributable to the monsoon craziness that visits India.
Though somewhat stunted / arrested, the notes ring with kindness, quite acceptable as well as accessible which makes the near-interminable length welcome.
Only mildly bitter or sweet at all so the good people at Mason & Co lie a little in labeling it 'bittersweet'. Instead this cleaves that super-fine line between Brut & Semisweet as sugar almost never makes an entrance let alone an intrusion (though it constitutes 25% of the ingredients).
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Reviewed April 7, 2016
A bit inarticulate; India's cocoa industry still learning to crawl towards, hopefully, hi-quality.
Zero quality control at the moment in fact because growers receive a good price even for unfermented cacáo -- often far in excess of the commodity rate on the global exchanges! So why bother? Especially with typical boom 'n bust cycles in the cocoa groves or better opportunity costs elsewhere -- like in rubber. Better still, in the revered tea gardens that gain renown around the world.
Indeed wealthy tea estates may also harbor cacáo trees making for an oxymoron on chocolate Earth: kind of literally 'filthy rich' (getting fingers dirty digging in the soil), amongst some starving poor Indians. Therefore growers could care less about cocoa quality, simply viewing it as a cash crop.
Given that India exports little-to-nil cocoa, & that its domestic consumption absorbs the capacity at any rate, hey, maybe free trade, NAFTA, TPP, etc., ain't all they're cracked up to be. Add more fodder for Sanders & Trump.
As such, the hard efforts of Jane & Fabien at Mason & Company could go a long way to developing a cacao-into-chocolate culture for India so that tenders do care enough to engage in superior practices necessary for hi-grade produce.
Mason & Company busily identify scattered old stand Criollos dotting the countryside around Kerala, India amidst the more prevalent 10 genotypes distributed by Cadbury. This bar, alas, decidedly in the latter camp.
At least these seeds underwent fermentation. Cured in plastic crates which creates a clean enough taste yet truncated, short on developing manifold & magnitude in flavor precursors despite fermenting for a solid week at an uneven rate, partially attributable to the monsoon craziness that visits India.
Though somewhat stunted / arrested, the notes ring with kindness, quite acceptable as well as accessible which makes the near-interminable length welcome.
Only mildly bitter or sweet at all so the good people at Mason & Co lie a little in labeling it 'bittersweet'. Instead this cleaves that super-fine line between Brut & Semisweet as sugar almost never makes an entrance let alone an intrusion (though it constitutes 25% of the ingredients).
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Reviewed April 7, 2016