Tumbador
Impact
Tumbadores are handymen who often use a tool in the tropics for picking off pods growing on cacáo trees which extends their reach so they can grab the high fruit instead of just the low-lying kind.
This chocolatier, mainly contracting for private-label clients, likewise reaches high, sometimes beyond its grasp (occasionally in need of a step-ladder & a hand-up), but from a solid base of ability & the right ambition.
If it stays on it to really investigate the properties of varying cacáos, expect it to climb near the top.
This chocolatier, mainly contracting for private-label clients, likewise reaches high, sometimes beyond its grasp (occasionally in need of a step-ladder & a hand-up), but from a solid base of ability & the right ambition.
If it stays on it to really investigate the properties of varying cacáos, expect it to climb near the top.
Presentation 4.4 / 5
dept store generica (no Nieman Marcus glitz; more like staid Bergdorf’s); generally hi-tempered / well-fitted pieces w/ cutely topped flourishes
Aromas 4.7 / 5
fruited perfume & tobacco
Textures/Melt 7.9 / 10
| Shells: | upper-thin to medium |
| Centers: | soft spread |
Flavor 43.2 / 50
forward-leaning w/o falling over; generally poised; some experimental though seldom eccentric for its own sake (a testament to the culinary skills which exhibit a fledgling sommelier character), several of which are triple-play combos following a chocolate-fruit-spice pattern
Quality 25.4 / 30
Ambitious & reaching. Part of the continuing tradition of bakers/patissieurs venturing into chocolate-based confections. Could benefit from upgrading couverture & creating a line more focused to better display the range of cacáo pairings.
Selections
| Couverture: | Callebaut; Guittard |
75% - vanilla-mushroom nose; vanilla-cream tongue collides against biting cocoa tannins for a strong & long, right-down-the-pike, palet d’or effect w/ quinine bitter at the back; very good
Strawberry Balsamic - an air of tobacco-berry but then bracing vinegar streams out & above the profile, eating away at the cocoa foundation eventually to be subsumed in a strawberry patch, then a late-breaking confluence of the 3 interact to raise the marriage of flavors to another level; sound proportion & progression
Raspberry - sweet berry cream w/ just an edge of tartness, though still very angular to a chocolate that never catches up to it; unbalanced
Apricot Ginger - Milk Chocolate a mere condiment to fruit gelée spiced by subliminal ginger; soft equilibrium
Passion Cream - snapping heart-shaped mold gushing uncontrollable liquid passion of too little support (whether chocolate or cream – this one’s on its own)
Lime Ancho in Milk Chocolate; cream enfolds lime as well as the raisin-inflected ancho pepper into a dessert treat
Reviewed January 2010
Strawberry Balsamic - an air of tobacco-berry but then bracing vinegar streams out & above the profile, eating away at the cocoa foundation eventually to be subsumed in a strawberry patch, then a late-breaking confluence of the 3 interact to raise the marriage of flavors to another level; sound proportion & progression
Raspberry - sweet berry cream w/ just an edge of tartness, though still very angular to a chocolate that never catches up to it; unbalanced
Apricot Ginger - Milk Chocolate a mere condiment to fruit gelée spiced by subliminal ginger; soft equilibrium
Passion Cream - snapping heart-shaped mold gushing uncontrollable liquid passion of too little support (whether chocolate or cream – this one’s on its own)
Lime Ancho in Milk Chocolate; cream enfolds lime as well as the raisin-inflected ancho pepper into a dessert treat
Reviewed January 2010