Centho
Impact
Rattles the cage with ‘boo’: some busy gothic-bizarre flavor-combos, without being cluttered, that for the most part work.
Presentation 3.9 / 5
functional
Aromas 3.6 / 5
fruit perfumes
Textures/Melt 7.8 / 10
| Shells: | thin & soft |
| Centers: | tender, jelly-like |
Flavor 42.1 / 50
infusion–biased & rather fruit-centric, sticky-sweet to test tooth enamel; in the Belgian tradition but w/ a Fleming twist (jellied centers instead of over-weaning cream-ganache plus the added touch of unusual, even strange combos)
Quality 25 / 30
Personable chocolates, & quite unique, though the sugar level in several pieces renders at times a 2-dimensional flatness
Selections
| Couverture: | Belcolade |
Vanuatu - no bells ‘n whistles, just solid, simple Milk Choc
Mojito - Cuban all the way from the cacáo origin to the Añejo blanco along El Malecón; loud raucous... the chocolate stumped, the rum drunk, & mint leaf blaring enough to fix any car horns in need of repair in downtown Havana
Tomato Basil - sugar & cream turn herb & fruit combo into raisin-bordering-balsamic
Wasabi Cocos - East-meets-the Equator; aromatics of wasabi at the periphery only but furnishes plenty of warmth for cooking coconut shavings & Costa Rican cocoa into a tropical brew; unusually good
Alpen-Honing - Swiss mountain milk + wild flower Alpine honey contra nearly invisible Ecuador cacáo (CCN-51 slag); excellent, such as it is, for what it is: a honey cream
Raisin - black-on-black (raisin/cacáo) fires red; soft jelly interior (practically grape-must) covered in Venezuelan chocolate pours off a big glass of Cab ‘n berries; very concentrated / jam-like
Mirabel - another jelly-jam, this one Vanuatu Milk Choc over sweet-tart plum
Alto el Sol - tries going to the Incan Temple of the Sun on Milk Chocolate shell, Dark cream core, & rosewater in between... comes out the wash as molasses
Violet Frambooos - raspberry tang & sugared violets in hyper-alignment w/ a Madagascar cacáo already puckering from its own acidity; a redundant dept of redundancy dept
Pepper Mango - incredibly smooth ganache (mango & cream just slithering) jolted by pepper biting up against a Peruvian bean of strong chocolate backbone that can take it; sloppy but successful icy-fire effect
Reviewed Autumn 2010
Mojito - Cuban all the way from the cacáo origin to the Añejo blanco along El Malecón; loud raucous... the chocolate stumped, the rum drunk, & mint leaf blaring enough to fix any car horns in need of repair in downtown Havana
Tomato Basil - sugar & cream turn herb & fruit combo into raisin-bordering-balsamic
Wasabi Cocos - East-meets-the Equator; aromatics of wasabi at the periphery only but furnishes plenty of warmth for cooking coconut shavings & Costa Rican cocoa into a tropical brew; unusually good
Alpen-Honing - Swiss mountain milk + wild flower Alpine honey contra nearly invisible Ecuador cacáo (CCN-51 slag); excellent, such as it is, for what it is: a honey cream
Raisin - black-on-black (raisin/cacáo) fires red; soft jelly interior (practically grape-must) covered in Venezuelan chocolate pours off a big glass of Cab ‘n berries; very concentrated / jam-like
Mirabel - another jelly-jam, this one Vanuatu Milk Choc over sweet-tart plum
Alto el Sol - tries going to the Incan Temple of the Sun on Milk Chocolate shell, Dark cream core, & rosewater in between... comes out the wash as molasses
Violet Frambooos - raspberry tang & sugared violets in hyper-alignment w/ a Madagascar cacáo already puckering from its own acidity; a redundant dept of redundancy dept
Pepper Mango - incredibly smooth ganache (mango & cream just slithering) jolted by pepper biting up against a Peruvian bean of strong chocolate backbone that can take it; sloppy but successful icy-fire effect
Reviewed Autumn 2010