Coco Rouge
Impact
Showmanship... & skill to back it up. Globalized chocolate from hometown Chicago USA puts it on the leading edge of the New American wave.
UPDATE 2008: CLOSED... R.I.P.
Presentation 4.9 / 5
sultry & colorful as a cabaret
Aromas 4.5 / 5
heady mix of all that’s inside
Textures/Melt 8.1 / 10
| Shells: | medium thickness |
| Centers: | variable but trend toward soft yet firm bodied |
Flavor 44.3 / 50
tilts forward in many daring directions; some wide misses but also some massively big hits
Quality 27.1 / 30
Innovative & reaching without being eccentric. Covers high to low / simple to elaborate.
Selections
Araminta – swudge bed of goo
Ek-Chuah – homage to the Mayan god of cacáo merchants utilizing cinnamon (the dominant carrier), marzipan, & Milk Choc, garnished w/ a brittle of blue agave nectar & roasted maize; cornpone sophisticado
Black Forest – beguiling; kirsch-like fortified cherry in Dark; seamlessly balanced by cocoa’s own liqueur profile
Turkish Coffee – prescription-strength café in pistachio mousse garnished w/ cardamom wisp; a globalization at its diametric strongest & lightest
Miel a la Lavande – Pure Provence by way of honeyed-caramel, salt & petals; exceptional recombinant blend
Sirena – a conundrum; topped by a tiny grapefruit-looking ring (advertised as orange blossom oil & kumquat + allspice)... adds up to a sinking banana frappé as drowning victims scream
Alba – lots of exotica (tupelo honey, white truffles from Alba, Italy & black truffle from Perigord, France + tellicherry pepper of India’s Malabar coast) for what amounts to vanilla cake frosting
Val de Loire – sweetly rich... feminine delectable; Milk Choc, raspberry jam, Turkish rose oil just the starters before Chambord encrusted in pulverized rose petals & roasted raspberries; a veritable potpourri
Cassius – gold-leaf single-malt drip-caramel; waste material – more Clay than Cassius
Buerre – full-bodied massage of hand-pressed French butter & Hors d’Age Armagnac from Lannemaignan rolled in extra brut powder; reverberating aftershocks
Ek-Chuah – homage to the Mayan god of cacáo merchants utilizing cinnamon (the dominant carrier), marzipan, & Milk Choc, garnished w/ a brittle of blue agave nectar & roasted maize; cornpone sophisticado
Black Forest – beguiling; kirsch-like fortified cherry in Dark; seamlessly balanced by cocoa’s own liqueur profile
Turkish Coffee – prescription-strength café in pistachio mousse garnished w/ cardamom wisp; a globalization at its diametric strongest & lightest
Miel a la Lavande – Pure Provence by way of honeyed-caramel, salt & petals; exceptional recombinant blend
Sirena – a conundrum; topped by a tiny grapefruit-looking ring (advertised as orange blossom oil & kumquat + allspice)... adds up to a sinking banana frappé as drowning victims scream
Alba – lots of exotica (tupelo honey, white truffles from Alba, Italy & black truffle from Perigord, France + tellicherry pepper of India’s Malabar coast) for what amounts to vanilla cake frosting
Val de Loire – sweetly rich... feminine delectable; Milk Choc, raspberry jam, Turkish rose oil just the starters before Chambord encrusted in pulverized rose petals & roasted raspberries; a veritable potpourri
Cassius – gold-leaf single-malt drip-caramel; waste material – more Clay than Cassius
Buerre – full-bodied massage of hand-pressed French butter & Hors d’Age Armagnac from Lannemaignan rolled in extra brut powder; reverberating aftershocks