Impact
Lots of taunting manpower as if Pralus stood among the 300 at Thermopylae & took Leonidas' reply to the Persian threat that their arrows will black out the sun as an instructional recipe... namely, "then we shall have our battle in the shade". A monstrous arsenal of dark-roasted flavor with an uncanny balance of light chocolate.
Appearance 3.8 / 5
| Color: | rusted brown |
| Surface: | scruffed & roughed; swirl patterns summoning Halloween ghosts & owls out back |
| Temper: | dull by Pralus standards: merely glossy |
| Snap: | solid; coarse almost crumbling edge |
Aroma 8 / 10
recessed & benefits from breathing: Porcelana-like toasted bread crumbs sprinkled atop unctuous buttered green theme (celery root bathed in avocado + olive & grape seed oils, wrapped in tobacco leaf) add poui branches / flowers; underlying citrus on the rubdown (more green - lime)
Mouthfeel 13.1 / 15
| Texture: | turgid |
| Melt: | crazy long legs |
Flavor 45.3 / 50
shoots out chocolate -> low hanging lime -> dark citric valence (grapefruit, grape seed, & rosella) -> breaded copra (dried coconut) & sweet potato... Pralus' signature charcoal grille for pain au chocolat -> garrigue / Provencal herbs close to his Roanne, France heart (lemon myrtle, celery root, thyme, mint, eucalyptus, & picholine) -> mutates vaporous stump juice cut by reddened white flowers peeping thru (bougainvillea, cherry blossom, & petitgrain) -> strengthens to coffee robusta -> lays the lumber (poui - bringing its flowers along) -> chocolate bang just xplodes -> lime rushes back in -> trails off bluestone & unlit mentholated cigarette
Quality 18.4 / 20
Dense & domineering. Creolized with such heavy, darkened tonality (very un-Trinidadian) it's difficult to cut thru the roast to get to any other aspects in the production chain; that's how pervasive. Almost a total eclipse except for rays of lime & flowering buds. So much verging on alcohol, this simulates Domori discovering a roaster button, but without quite tipping over & into mojito city.