Torreblanca
Impact
Some slow down to speed up –- a jedi mind-trick to control acceleration at any velocity or altitude at any elevation.
Torreblanca (Spanish for ‘white tower’ - the very name itself carries tonnage) rises to a deceptively clever castle-in-the-air. Back on the ground, however, he’s solid torremarrón – the monumental "Big Brown" towering over the competition like a matador a bull.
And what can Brown do for you?
Deliver... as in transports to out-of-body experiences, & none of this kissy kind of C-spa chocolate either.
These pieces in this box can unplug you – fast... faster than supercomputer HAL pleading with astronaut Dave Bowman in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: "Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?... My mind is going, I can feel it. I can feel it."
Torreblanca should be on the tip of every sentient creature's lips at least once in a lifetime (if not daily).
Torreblanca (Spanish for ‘white tower’ - the very name itself carries tonnage) rises to a deceptively clever castle-in-the-air. Back on the ground, however, he’s solid torremarrón – the monumental "Big Brown" towering over the competition like a matador a bull.
And what can Brown do for you?
Deliver... as in transports to out-of-body experiences, & none of this kissy kind of C-spa chocolate either.
These pieces in this box can unplug you – fast... faster than supercomputer HAL pleading with astronaut Dave Bowman in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: "Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?... My mind is going, I can feel it. I can feel it."
Torreblanca should be on the tip of every sentient creature's lips at least once in a lifetime (if not daily).
Presentation 4.6 / 5
sinister brown box wrapped in so much stealth it’s basically black, trimmed in white & red, & extremely difficult to pry open; inside a terraced display / grandstand risers like some Mesoamerican 007 attaché opens onto the pieces themselves - visually quiet... enrobings of tight fit
Aromas 4.3 / 5
tucked intercut of herbs/spices & chocolate
Textures/Melt 8 / 10
| Shells: | tremulous then shatters & breaks the face |
| Centers: | soft spread whether for a butter knife or a tongue |
Flavor 49.1 / 50
Quiet & exciting despite generally low cream-content... flawless integration & extradimensional in a self-involved paradox; the zen-dialectic of perfectly balanced equilibriums & vanishing points recalling Chocolat de H but with deeper subatomic understanding of cacáo, its power & mission to act here as catalyst & vector toward idealized Platonic sensations. As such, chocolate itself becomes subsumed, less the super hero ala LMDC or William Curley & more the saintly self-effacing martyr, giving itself up, attaching its molecular weight to create other life forces often distinct from the familiar & terrestrial which separates Paco Torreblanca from fellow Spaniard Joan Baixas at that proverbial fork in the road even as both head in the general direction of greatness.
Quality 29.5 / 30
Inestimable. Ultra-consummate skills – should be the requisite post-doctorate course for el Bulli / Ferran Adria acolytes (RE: Cacao Sampaka; Oriol Balaguer). Zero pretense & nothing extraneous.
Blue-chip A-List.
Blue-chip A-List.
Selections
| Couverture: | Valrhona |
Candy Cognac Café - invert-sugar shoots out an oozy gun of fun pop-rock candy-crunch while coffee & cognac sneak up from the rear in unison to just spray ‘n slay chocolate & vanish quickly as professional assassins
Cebolla - looking thru the glass onion milkly; that’s right, onion in chocolate; wisely adorned in Milk Chocolate praliné... wafer & air-injected to soften the edge giving a molecular puff dimension plus simultaneous retention; unreal
Curry - most obvious strength of the set; Dark-on-Milk barely restrains the infusion until chocolate backsets become foreground in a kind of naan (oven-baked flat-bread) on the mind
Cacahuete y Sal - destroys the course; unlike any peanut confection... ever; smoothly imperceptible save for a glancing hit at mid-palate followed quickly by an unforeseen candied-cherry sunrise salted away in brooding chocolate tannins; an ineffable phenomena
Aceite Oliva - naturally unctuous; extremely concentrated reductions obscure then obliterate the elements interscoping fusions to otherworldly matter forested in woods, herbs, fungus, & food for unicorns suspended... in disbelief
Reviewed Autumn 2009
Cebolla - looking thru the glass onion milkly; that’s right, onion in chocolate; wisely adorned in Milk Chocolate praliné... wafer & air-injected to soften the edge giving a molecular puff dimension plus simultaneous retention; unreal
Curry - most obvious strength of the set; Dark-on-Milk barely restrains the infusion until chocolate backsets become foreground in a kind of naan (oven-baked flat-bread) on the mind
Cacahuete y Sal - destroys the course; unlike any peanut confection... ever; smoothly imperceptible save for a glancing hit at mid-palate followed quickly by an unforeseen candied-cherry sunrise salted away in brooding chocolate tannins; an ineffable phenomena
Aceite Oliva - naturally unctuous; extremely concentrated reductions obscure then obliterate the elements interscoping fusions to otherworldly matter forested in woods, herbs, fungus, & food for unicorns suspended... in disbelief
Reviewed Autumn 2009