Impact
In the creative world, an artist has to have something to say instead of just saying something.
Who knows exactly what Beethoven's saying but we sure as hell know he's saying it.
Askinosie focuses alot on the peripherals: relationships with the environment, growers, fair-trading, biodegradable packaging... all vital but almost an apologia for what's inside the wrapper. It's still searching for its style/voice but given the conscientious dedication, it'll find it & this may be the gateway... a breakthrough bar that shows world-class craft to put Askinosie on the map. Rough around the edges (by design) & quite masculine but vulnerable too in the way Stanley Kowalski is in Streetcar Named Desire.
Not for the faint-hearted; with an ounce of courage, however, this is imminently approachable & intimately embraceable.
Who knows exactly what Beethoven's saying but we sure as hell know he's saying it.
Askinosie focuses alot on the peripherals: relationships with the environment, growers, fair-trading, biodegradable packaging... all vital but almost an apologia for what's inside the wrapper. It's still searching for its style/voice but given the conscientious dedication, it'll find it & this may be the gateway... a breakthrough bar that shows world-class craft to put Askinosie on the map. Rough around the edges (by design) & quite masculine but vulnerable too in the way Stanley Kowalski is in Streetcar Named Desire.
Not for the faint-hearted; with an ounce of courage, however, this is imminently approachable & intimately embraceable.
Appearance 4.9 / 5
| Color: | dark red eye |
| Surface: | A-1 front; backsided cuticle nibs applied stucco al fresco (ala Mischer) rather than embedded |
| Temper: | mega-watt |
| Snap: | sharp jab |
Aroma 7.4 / 10
meek chocolate / cinchona wood surrounded by remote low lying grasslands (switch grass, straw, hay), sorrel & buckwheat, clary sage & olive grove, + a skunk of cheese; as usual, Askinosie's bars aerate to much more... possibly the result of non-deodorized butter taking its time to meld then magnify 1st impressions... in this case here into cherrywood
Mouthfeel 11.8 / 15
| Texture: | nibs tough as nails |
| Melt: | fractious disintegration in the middle of parched desert... astringent too |
Flavor 44.9 / 50
heirloom chocolate in browned sugar -> toasted cocoa... up to this point relics of the true history of Soconusco -> bitter olive & cinchona (i.e., Jesuit's bark) become a pill... first quinine to drive bugs off, then St. Joseph children's chewable aspirin... all bittersweet -> pistachio (incl shell bits) + walnut highlights underlying bitterness & slight acidity (so-called 'Trinitario' hybrid effects) -> arid mocha vanilla before nuts & stringent grass close it off
Quality 18.1 / 20
Nibs just nails it - literally & figuratively - in taste & texture. Under a firm roast, they smooth out & convert a good amount of the Ceylan cacáo strain's acidity, evident in Askinosie's straight Soconusio bar (without Nibs), to measured bitterness, featuring longer / stronger glimpes of the region's shrouded chocolate relics (though at the risk of dangerously flattening the profile). A real achievement - tweaking & finding a way thru the hybrids back to the origins, picking the lock to the past.
CBS: (Cocoa mass/Butter/Sugar ratio) ~ 3:3:2
CBS: (Cocoa mass/Butter/Sugar ratio) ~ 3:3:2