Impact
A machine. Backs up a beeping truck in reverse, hooks a hose to the lip spigot, & just power washes the mouth grill with simple chocolate.
Appearance 4.4 / 5
| Color: | red brick house, practically crimson |
| Surface: | clean setting |
| Temper: | nice fold / good gloss |
| Snap: | blasting rock; granite break wall |
Aroma 8.1 / 10
earth-clad: dense, brown & low: strong milk chocolate caramel, wood (maple), nuts (almond), spice (vanilla / cinnamon); almost no fruit whatsoever until it airs out a hibernating red berry, then much later... honeydew melon + a white petal
Mouthfeel 14.1 / 15
| Texture: | thick rondo silk |
| Melt: | frictionless |
Flavor 42 / 50
little to report: hits the hammer on hot cocoa mix -> quiet spice -> low rolling caramels -> brown sugar -> tightens the grip on line-drive chocolate -> that red hiding in the scent reveals shy raspberry ping, that never really turns over, squelched by charred-dry cocoa tannins at the finishing choke point
Quality 15.6 / 20
Good for what it is - friendly - but inert & anonymous, even a bit dead for SdL... well on the way to becoming an unhopeful melancholy corpse deprived of life force thru too much make-up: vanilla & lecithin especially. The roast equalizes the settings to a fine, however flat-line, chocolate. To top it, over-conched (hence supreme texture but, alas, stripped of every acid for no contrast - no bounce or flounce - hard to achieve given the longitudinal low ' n slow conche employed) & probably put thru a de-acidification machine. Gone is the festive array of dancing sugar plum fairies, orange blossoms + husky cinnamon & coffee cake from this very bar's past. R.I.P.