the first official tasting

had a lot before this, but they wouldn't make good posts. my plan is to try to taste the choco, then after each taste, post a "review" of sorts, and then when i'm all finished with a bar (so not every day), compare to earlier tastings and give a more "averaged" review of ssavory, orts. this may be time consuming. oh well

also, note that the tags are the names of the chocolates -- i'll try to keep these consistent so the categories dealy can be used to find a choco and all of its tasting "episodes"

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pralus - venezuela
visual - very smooth outisde, after cracking notice some tiny bubbles, nice deep brown color. yep
snap - very nice.
smell - savory, browned butter, roasty, less intense->(mintish, something), reminds of pad thai with the peanut sauce, more savory, slight vanilla, slight slight caramelized, possibly some light hints of orange peel (fresh) but not sure. mostly dominated by savory/browned butter smell 8.5
taste - roast - dark roast nuts (almonds) comes first, slight popcorny, develops into extremely intense burnt butter popcorn, hints of soft cocoa in bckgd, caramel, really rich textures, slight acid, but thinckness much more intense, more roasty nuts and caramel, shiny metallic butter, pssibly some dried fruit at end but mostly dominating elements of roast. 9
balance - excellent. leaning towards sweet and rich, low but welcome bitterness, low acid supports structure. just has this wonderful full bodied feeling like the entire palate is being filled 9.5
texture - didn't notice any graininess. felt very smooth and rich. 9

interpretation - this really is a favorite of mine. the nose/smell could mislead you to thinking that it was an overly roasted, somewhat flat-character chocolate. nothing particularly sticks out except for the roasty aspects and some nuttiness.
however, upon eating, (past the early couple of seconds) it explodes into this burnt popcorn thing which blows my mind every time. how could it be chocolate? that then slowly gives way to nuttiness and some caramel aspects. not very complex, but the thing to keep in mind is that through the entire length, there's an incredible richness powering through all of the phases. it's not something i've seen in many chocolates. certainly makes this one stand out. 9~9.5

summary - rich roasty nutty

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bonnat - chuao
visual - surface clean and smooth, very few air bubbles, nice red-tinted wood brown. 9
snap - nice 8
smell - jammy berry, wooden cask, slight fresh green herbal, citronella candle, (posibly mistaken) some rootbeer?, frther smelling reveals soft, slightly stinky cocoa, citronella could be interpreted as some sort of light wood??. in general, complex, subtle and fairly low intensity - 9
taste - light cocoa, slight caramel, sharp wild berry, red wood, some minty, citronella, texture soft slightly grainy, reasonable acidity, chocolatey essence, fruit and wood mix, low bitter, somewhat rem of a choco cake, fades to cocoa and slight minty - 9
balance - very good. all 3 major axes (sweet, acid, bitter) seem to be aligned in a low intensity mix. bitter sticks out a little more at end. - 8.5
texture - slightly grainy feeling. but in general good. 8.5

interpretation - a mysterious and subtle chocolate. nose indicates that it will be complex and subtle (low intensity). berry and wood to begin with, then shifting towards cocoa and citronella candle shows that this choco is fairly wide in the range of smells it covers. tastes confirm what smells suggest, extremely complex. starting with gentle cocoa and caramel, chocolate shifts to sharp smells like blueberry and wood, even some mint, all the while maintaining a low-key presence in all 3 axes, bitter/cocoa-foundation being slightly more present than others. tends to waver back and forth between the tastes, then finishing to an interesting cocoa smell that i could only really describe as slightly minty. the only disappointment here was the texture which was a little more grainy than it could have been. balance was good, but maybe not 100% in my personal preference direction. 8~9

summary - subtle complex berry/sharp/wood/cocoa

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(upper left)
michel cluizel - maralumi (papua new guinea) 5g square
look - can see some swirly patterns. don't know what that means. inside is very uniform looking. lighter brown with some slight orange red tinting. 9
snap - nice . 8
smell - sharp smoky, toasty nut, coconut??, slight "exotic", somewhat rem of a choco balance bar, nuttyness, caramelization, acidity, burnt dry garlic chips, slight berry, cocoa depth. 8.5 (some smells are slightly "low class"). cedar
taste - same candy bar smell, nuttyness, very tart, sweet slightly over bitter/base, nutty praline, raspberry, slight vinegary, beautiful texture, more caramelly, wash out with more acid, nuttyness, caramel, fade to slight vanil plus nutty. wow, very intense. 8.5
balance - very high intensity tart and sweet, which end up being very well matched. base is present, but any "bitter" is overshadowed by powerful acid and sweetness. still, things seem fairly in check. 9 (personally think it's too sweet, but that's 64% for u)
texture - wonderful. ultra smooth, high rich sensation. 9 (pure enjoyment somewhat hampered by excessive acidity)

interpretation - a fairly intense, in-your-face experience. from the moment of opening wrapper, strong, characteristic "cluizel" smells waft up. the smell itself says that it will be a strong showing. smoky and toasty-nut to start, followed by a middle stage of more caramelly/nutty candybar-ness, possibly caused by raspberry essence lurking. also hints at acidity to come on palate.
nuttiness and the odd candybar smell dominate the start, all the while supported or "pushed up" by the intensity of the acid/sugar. shifts to praline-like tastes, something slightly savory, raspberry (possibly the source of the candybar smell) and caramel. finishes with nuttyness, slight caramel and vanilla. a very very intense experience due to acid. in general, it was a bit too intense, and some "slightly lower class" flavors/aromas were present, which kinda made me rethink a higher rating. still, the powerful showing of nuttyness and caramel can't be ignored, so points for that one. if i could, i'd tone down the acid/sugar and clean up some of the oddness in the "lower end" of the smells. 8~9

summary - acid sugar nutty caramel some fruit

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reflections - yep, 3 is definitely the limit when writing out these full descriptions. i just start to lose patience. regardless, we know which of the 3 is my favorite. not much in terms of source or other comments on manufacturer etc.
i guess i don't really care about that stuff. well, until next time!