Semi-Sweet
by Noi Sirius
Impact
Certain days during winter around the Artic Circle, the sun never rises. Maybe at 3AM, if Icelanders are lucky, it barely skims beneath the horizon at the top of the world, a thin crescent too dim to call light yet its presence alters the surroundings, making white polar bears, for instance, stand out a little less in the night. Beyond opaque, it’s vaguely oblique. This is that bar – with a blizzard of sugar plowed in from a troll farther up North.
Appearance 3.2 / 5
| Color: | some kind of brown lava of permafrost |
| Surface: | dense looking Brillo pad |
| Temper: | sped so fast down the assembly line it barely got waxed |
| Snap: | crystal flakes |
Aroma 5.4 / 10
choco-lint that’s been thru the clothes dryer + some torched cocoa
Mouthfeel 10.3 / 15
| Texture: | lumpen |
| Melt: | glacial |
Flavor 32.8 / 50
slides-in wax -> caramel-scented candle -> dust in the lint trap -> barley malt -> kamut / spelt grains -> cocoa syrup so flat it never had a chance to lose its fizz
Quality 14.6 / 20
Flavors repressed just under the surface & slightly over the horizon. For those who take dutched-cocoa with their sugar... at about $10/lb.