Impact
Of Bonnat's Dark-Milk Jazz Trio, Java plays brass, Asfarth percussion, & here Surabaya the strings in this Honky-Tonk Stinkhole. But just as sulphur springs are hard to get into (stronger than smelling salts for reviving a knocked-out boxer) once you take the plunge, healing begins. Final flavor cures a lot of early ills with very little bitter medicine.
Appearance 4.1 / 5
| Color: | tan canyon; curiously pale considering high cacáo content |
| Surface: | fine sandstone |
| Temper: | glazed an inch thick on top; unpolished bottom |
| Snap: | inaudible |
Aroma 5.4 / 10
stinking buttermilk & cheese against bacon bits scattered atop polyurethaned wood; clearly fire-dried/fried, & probably laid out to cool on some plastic surface
Mouthfeel 11.2 / 15
| Texture: | quite heavy, 3x its own weight, w/ lumbering globules |
| Melt: | uneven & loud (squishes, burbles, reflux) |
Flavor 43.3 / 50
loads-in standard Java - smoke & milk for slow-roasted burnt-caramel -> straw hay envelopes in the haze, creates calm bitter calling up a fantastic saffron -> gets cheesy - but only briefly - from archipelago's colonial-Dutch past on smoked gouda -> goes down decisively herbal: 1st green (saw grass, sweet tobacco undertones of German chamomile, & olive leaf), then brown w/ medicinal mushrooms, before sarsaparilla, chicory, & licorice-inflected after-tastes
Quality 17.2 / 20
Disguise & deception - packs a lot of punch by way of gentle jabs. What starts with staggering off-odors (hard to say if Euro cows eat or smoke some kind of weird grass, or maybe they used yak milk in keeping it close to a Java character) stands up well as the combined drying techniques on the island + Bonnat’s customary firm roast produce savory musk with legions of smoke trails.