65%
Pulpa de Cacao
Chocho
Golden Lime
by Mashpi
Impact
Stephen Wolfram, the math / computer / physics wiz, wonders whether looking at Earth from space if anything with a purpose hangs out on this planet? In other words, can one tell there's civilization on Earth?
He asked astronauts if Earth shows intelligence from afar. Their first response: there's a straight line in the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Turns out to be a causeway that divides two areas having very different colors of algae. It's a very dramatic straight line. Intel at the micro level.
Or in New Zealand, the more or less perfect circle called Mount Erebus. Contrary to popular belief, Mount Erebus is not a circular volcano. The circle comes from the national park drawn around the volcano thanks to sheep grazing the grounds to create the circled geometry.
Upon closer inspection -- perhaps of the MREs onboard their orbiting craft -- they might notice these bars from Mashpi in Ecuador. Especially the Semi-Oscuro con Chocho (see below), a vital sign of life on Earth compared to the relative vacuum of both outer space & the chocolate industry at large.
He asked astronauts if Earth shows intelligence from afar. Their first response: there's a straight line in the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Turns out to be a causeway that divides two areas having very different colors of algae. It's a very dramatic straight line. Intel at the micro level.
Or in New Zealand, the more or less perfect circle called Mount Erebus. Contrary to popular belief, Mount Erebus is not a circular volcano. The circle comes from the national park drawn around the volcano thanks to sheep grazing the grounds to create the circled geometry.
Upon closer inspection -- perhaps of the MREs onboard their orbiting craft -- they might notice these bars from Mashpi in Ecuador. Especially the Semi-Oscuro con Chocho (see below), a vital sign of life on Earth compared to the relative vacuum of both outer space & the chocolate industry at large.
Appearance 3 / 5
| Color: |
65% cacao + Barra Rellena con Pulpa de Cacao: light mud Semi-Oscuro con Chocho: off-biege Golden Lime: the opposite of its namesake |
| Surface: | scruffy the dog |
| Temper: | angered |
| Snap: | pre-snapped in transit |
Aroma 8.5 / 10
65% cacao
manifold & surprisingly potent for the percentage
forest herbs & vines which so typifies Ecuador cacáo at the center
fringe meadow as well as some minor hammy over-ferment
dirt
spiced malt hovers
Barra Rellena con Pulpa de Cacao
more of the same except sweeter yet deeper than the 65% (above) & greater definition too
diffuses acrid ginger beer
Semi-Oscuro con Chocho
simplifies the contours: just nuts under horsetail
Golden Lime
snaps the nares with as much golden berry as golden lime
manifold & surprisingly potent for the percentage
forest herbs & vines which so typifies Ecuador cacáo at the center
fringe meadow as well as some minor hammy over-ferment
dirt
spiced malt hovers
Barra Rellena con Pulpa de Cacao
more of the same except sweeter yet deeper than the 65% (above) & greater definition too
diffuses acrid ginger beer
Semi-Oscuro con Chocho
simplifies the contours: just nuts under horsetail
Golden Lime
snaps the nares with as much golden berry as golden lime
Mouthfeel 11.9 / 15
| Texture: | ranges from fractious to gooey... |
| Melt: | ... & sticky |
Flavor 43.1 / 50
65% cacao
sweet cacáo verde (leaves / climbing vines / raw bean) -> stringent florals (jasmine + geranium) -> mild camphor -> dry guava -> bluestone -> sweet sheetrock plantain -> mellocos
Barra Rellena con Pulpa de Cacao
the ginger-beer aspect of the Aroma dominates the bramble of the 65% base (see above for details) -> leads to a tart, almost bracing, sting of a spillover -> lemon-lime splash
Semi-Oscuro con Chocho
enters into a milky-mesquite countenance & stays on it while simultaneously strays from it!... with tremendous length -> malt -> lightly bar-b-q'd legume -> cereal -> rear bacon
Golden Lime
cocoa nuts 'n flower -> liminal lime at the very edges moves into the deep center attended by mite tingling (nice FXs)... infuses the tannins into a chocolate-orange blossom sunrise (stunning, almost breathtaking in its subtlety) -> neroli in the clearing
sweet cacáo verde (leaves / climbing vines / raw bean) -> stringent florals (jasmine + geranium) -> mild camphor -> dry guava -> bluestone -> sweet sheetrock plantain -> mellocos
Barra Rellena con Pulpa de Cacao
the ginger-beer aspect of the Aroma dominates the bramble of the 65% base (see above for details) -> leads to a tart, almost bracing, sting of a spillover -> lemon-lime splash
Semi-Oscuro con Chocho
enters into a milky-mesquite countenance & stays on it while simultaneously strays from it!... with tremendous length -> malt -> lightly bar-b-q'd legume -> cereal -> rear bacon
Golden Lime
cocoa nuts 'n flower -> liminal lime at the very edges moves into the deep center attended by mite tingling (nice FXs)... infuses the tannins into a chocolate-orange blossom sunrise (stunning, almost breathtaking in its subtlety) -> neroli in the clearing
Quality 16.3 / 20
65% cacao
Vibrant... barely roasted if at all.
Years ago this kind of flavor profile would have shocked most consumers. Now it's so commonplace that "non-complex" / "un-nuanced" straightforward cocoa flavor seems radical. Primitive in more ways than just processing style.
Mounting historical, genetic, & botanical evidence points to an evolutionary progression of cacáo away from Ecuador toward a genetic drift far in the opposite direction.
Consider this chocolate therefore antique.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Barra Rellena con Pulpa de Cacao
A filled chocolate or a sort of bombone in a bar.
Strength in acidity. A bit too strong. While the opening frames conjoined chocolate with cacáo pulp nicely, the 2nd half just wipes that out with a near-tidal acid bath.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, cacáo pulp
Semi-Oscuro con Chocho
Barely identifiable as a chocolate at all. A 'meta-bar' of sorts in which the components, so well-integrated to taste virtually seamless, become something else altogether.
Seasoned with lupin, one of the very few vegetarian sources, like buckwheat, of complete protein &, better still, unlike most beans, easily digestible.
Harkens back to the day when fecula or starches were added to chocolate as an undisclosed adulterant or, if advertised, labeled as an analeptic chocolate.
Incredible. Completely vegan yet fools of a distinct milk chocolate. And a thick pounding coat of a Texture spreads the pleasure. Absolutely unexpected & excellent in its own way, such as it is. Deserves its own review / rating of 4.5+ pods / stars.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, powdered lupin, sugar, cocoa butter
Golden Lime
Very reserved considering the combo. Calamondin aka golden lime (among many names) forms a cross between mandarin & kumquat. In so including it in this confection, Mashpi in effect deftly restores the intrinsic orange note of which almost all Ecuadorian Nacional cacáo is now bereft thanks to decades of poor breeding & agronomy. Like the Chocho (above), so compatible to be contiguous to be seamless.
Ingenious.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Capsule Summary
Out performs its relatively meager 65% cacáo weight. And the flavored bars demonstrate nimble execution at Mashpi, a Bud-to-Bud™ homestead (cacáo flower bud to human taste buds) in a forest-garden environment.
A maker on the make.
Reviewed May 4, 2016
Vibrant... barely roasted if at all.
Years ago this kind of flavor profile would have shocked most consumers. Now it's so commonplace that "non-complex" / "un-nuanced" straightforward cocoa flavor seems radical. Primitive in more ways than just processing style.
Mounting historical, genetic, & botanical evidence points to an evolutionary progression of cacáo away from Ecuador toward a genetic drift far in the opposite direction.
Consider this chocolate therefore antique.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Barra Rellena con Pulpa de Cacao
A filled chocolate or a sort of bombone in a bar.
Strength in acidity. A bit too strong. While the opening frames conjoined chocolate with cacáo pulp nicely, the 2nd half just wipes that out with a near-tidal acid bath.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, cacáo pulp
Semi-Oscuro con Chocho
Barely identifiable as a chocolate at all. A 'meta-bar' of sorts in which the components, so well-integrated to taste virtually seamless, become something else altogether.
Seasoned with lupin, one of the very few vegetarian sources, like buckwheat, of complete protein &, better still, unlike most beans, easily digestible.
Harkens back to the day when fecula or starches were added to chocolate as an undisclosed adulterant or, if advertised, labeled as an analeptic chocolate.
Incredible. Completely vegan yet fools of a distinct milk chocolate. And a thick pounding coat of a Texture spreads the pleasure. Absolutely unexpected & excellent in its own way, such as it is. Deserves its own review / rating of 4.5+ pods / stars.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, powdered lupin, sugar, cocoa butter
Golden Lime
Very reserved considering the combo. Calamondin aka golden lime (among many names) forms a cross between mandarin & kumquat. In so including it in this confection, Mashpi in effect deftly restores the intrinsic orange note of which almost all Ecuadorian Nacional cacáo is now bereft thanks to decades of poor breeding & agronomy. Like the Chocho (above), so compatible to be contiguous to be seamless.
Ingenious.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter
Capsule Summary
Out performs its relatively meager 65% cacáo weight. And the flavored bars demonstrate nimble execution at Mashpi, a Bud-to-Bud™ homestead (cacáo flower bud to human taste buds) in a forest-garden environment.
A maker on the make.
Reviewed May 4, 2016