Queen Bee Gardens
Impact
A sleeper in the middle of nowhere (except to those who know Jackson Hole, the Grand Tetons & Yellowstone... out there in some big state). As far as the chocolate map goes, Wyoming ain’t on it but Queen Bee Gardens is, & hard at work to put it there – by stinging Mid-America’s wagging taste buds. Their chocolate turtles are crowd-getters. Oddly unique too, primarily honey-sweetened from their own apiary which makes for one of those “duh”moments because cacáo’s a fruit tree with nectar-guideline flowers to attract the honey bee.
Presentation 4.2 / 5
large hemispheric truffles & weighty humpback turtles
Aromas 4.3 / 5
honey inflections
Textures/Melt 7.8 / 10
| Shells: | medium gauge |
| Centers: | mealy; quite substantial, thick, feels heavier than a 2:1 ratio |
Flavor 41.4 / 50
honey colors the profile, adding depth & dimension that the clean taste of white sugar never pretends nor intends to; matched w/ Guittard’s soda pop semisweet couverture
Quality 22.9 / 30
Interesting risk within a tightly traditional framework
Selections
| Couverture: | Guittard |
Dark-on-Dark (D.O.D.) - stands for Dead-On Dynamite
Peanut Butter – clean, honest grown up kids stuff
Raspberry – true taste at 1st then creams out into confected neverland
Orange – creamsicle on chocolate; nice, light froth
Maple Butterscotch – uninspired accuracy
Caramel – honey-toned carbohydrate
Almond Coconut – rich fun w/o heroics
Raisin Fudge – over malted
Walnut – maladroit
Currant – plain, stark & limited
Salted Honeyback Turtles - enough sweet tug on the teeth to be a tractor pull & enough salt to prove it crawled out from the ocean floor; excellence
Toffee – all crunch; lite, medium weight, diluted taste
Peanut Butter – clean, honest grown up kids stuff
Raspberry – true taste at 1st then creams out into confected neverland
Orange – creamsicle on chocolate; nice, light froth
Maple Butterscotch – uninspired accuracy
Caramel – honey-toned carbohydrate
Almond Coconut – rich fun w/o heroics
Raisin Fudge – over malted
Walnut – maladroit
Currant – plain, stark & limited
Salted Honeyback Turtles - enough sweet tug on the teeth to be a tractor pull & enough salt to prove it crawled out from the ocean floor; excellence
Toffee – all crunch; lite, medium weight, diluted taste