Impact
Jewish Xmas in the Caribbean, mon, with sugar plum fairies gamboling in gingerbread houses, & licorice dollops - covered in white chocolate - snowing where the weather outside ain’t frightenin’ cuz the solar fire is so delightening.
Back in reality: a boating accident with jetsam & flotsam strewn about, caused by too much boastin ‘n toastin of a borsch beet-le juice cocktail with mango sauce.
Back in reality: a boating accident with jetsam & flotsam strewn about, caused by too much boastin ‘n toastin of a borsch beet-le juice cocktail with mango sauce.
Appearance 4.6 / 5
| Color: | purple rouge |
| Surface: | spotless top, crisscross quilt design w/ S-B’s Ibex struttin prouder than the peacock; weather-beaten out back |
| Temper: | glistening / lustrous |
| Snap: | high, thin pitch (nearly brittle, could spell trouble) |
Aroma 8.4 / 10
mid-strength: warm leather coat over smoldering tobacco & mulched hickory chips; cut by cooler, Valrhona-type fermented tones that come up strong on the rubdown, generating plum brandy
Mouthfeel 11.3 / 15
| Texture: | somewhat stiff (forecast by the snap), breaksdown into thick globs like chunder pudding |
| Melt: | uneven…then virtually liquefies |
Flavor 39.7 / 50
bang chocolate twang w/ bitter bottom rudder -> sugar mercifully jacks-in... cherry off-loads to raspberry top notes & refracts red plum (Venezuela) -> goes green, 1st on tobacco (overlays the entire length) -> runs aground on Spice Island (Grenada) with nutmeg / ginger / pepper & a drop of molasses, which turns the preceding into mocha-black plum pudding causing the bar to lose its temper (in every aspect) & nerve -> green mango / guava -> greener pineapple, sours into un-aged rum -> really lost its compass, instead of Caribbean, points to tart Madagascan but w/ a thin tobacco veil for dirty acid miasma -> tries to reorient / reconstitute w/ a fighting mineral beet-juice stripped of any antique warmth -> yet still, deep in the shaft the plum fairy comes back, this time in a dried out prune-state; finishes off nicely on breaded chocolate cream
Quality 14.4 / 20
Muddled & jumbled; lacks clarity, feels jejeune (crib). S-B gets Cluizel-clever by color-coding the outside wrapper to match the inside flavor, in this case magenta, as Venezuelan (probably Sur del Lago) carries a lot of the plum notes reminiscent of Felchlin’s version of that origin. But oft-allies Trinidad & Domican Republic go to war in this hodge-podge blend of “Trinitarios”: tobacco of the former clouds (though hardly surpresses) insurgent acidity of the latter, & the clash is on. Then tiny Grenada, too unruly to ever be neutral, brings spices to the table (all good) & its own abrasion force (look out), & really tips the balance; reinforcing, indeed amplfying, both sides with acrid earth & acids. S-B would be wise to limit the bean selection as it did with its unfairly malignedKumasi-Sambirano. Some may still think all’s well that ends well - & this winds down well enough, though, like that problematic Shakepeare play, it’s a forced marriage in which the fairy tale meets the wall of realism.