a very lively tasting

nice and sunny after a cloudy day. slightly overslept. decent focus. hungry.


pralus venezuela
look - a fair brown with orange tinting. good smoothness, some small bubbling. 9
smell - nutty butter, slight vanilla, grahm cracker and slight fruit (berry), slight bay leaf, touch of raisin, maple. cedary touch. i feel like i'm smelling different things than usual. 9+
taste - sweet soft melt, roasty peanuts, cocoa, nice hot chocolate (all very early impressions), after the hot choco, some caramel-type burny, then metallic butter, amazing texture, roasty thing, tree bark, faint vanilla, smoky finish (possibly sometoasted sesame mixed in with pure cocoa) 9+
balance - very nice. sweetness is perceived strongly, but a fair amount of acid to back it up. base is nice. 9
texture - so rich. depending on your preference this can be good or bad. i really like it. so fine, so smooth. the richness really makes this chocolate stand out. 9.5

interpretation - a rich and pure chocolate. very expressive of pure cocoa tones. roasting is fairly strong. the way the richness and sweetness counterbalance the roast is 'masterful'. makes for an eye opening experience instead of being a one-sided roaster. really fun to eat. i need a truck full of this stuff. 9+
summary - rich, roasty, pure cocoa, buttery
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amano cuyagua
look - very light brown - heavy red-orange hue-ing. smooth on the whole, some tiny bubbling
smell - sharp red lumber, tobacco, slight fermentacious, dried blackberries, incense, leather (another interpretation for the fresh tobacco smell), vanilly-potato, 'forest fresh' soap, peach? 9+ very exciting (a little bit off with fermentacious, but still ok)
taste - tomato plant, sharp geen leafy taste, different fruit, incense, black tea, cigar, fragrant... trop fruit, woody (fresh lumber), more tobacco heavy cocoa at finish. very faint astringency. 9
balance - quite nice. a bit on the sweet side, acid was not prominent enough to take attention away from sweetness. good base. 9
texture - very nice. smooth, slight rich feeling. clean and light in some ways. 9

interpretation - a strong, character-filled chocolate. really exciting plant-characteristics that makes one remember that chocolate comes from plants. in some ways it's one sided because the tobacco flavor dominates, but my perception of that flavor changed again and again thru the whole experience. definitely a chocolate to get you "pumped". very slight flaws (faint fermentacious, astringency), but easy to overlook because of the power and character of the choco. 9+
summary - powerful, tobacco, slight sweet, character-filled
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michel cluizel - maralumi
look - a light, dull brown with orange hues. fairly smooth 5g square.
smell - sharp bright curry, raisins, vanilla. cumin and... red chile?, cinammon?, (it was like the sweet smelling curry powder i have), plums, roasted nut, light caramel toffee. 9+ very exciting
taste - dry roasted nut, smoky, peanut-sugar-rice-cracker, dried fruit, acid, caramel, more trees, cocoa, red tart fruit, savory (spicy) flavors at finish. 9 (intense)
balance - sweet as expected (for a 64%), but with a lot of mature acid to back things up, it really makes it feel rounded. base is kind of drawn out by acid and sweet, makes the whole experience intense. 9
texture - very very nice. fine, clean, smooth, rich. not as oily as venezuela (then again, not much is...) 9.5

interpretation - a fiery chocolate. a lot of sharp, spicy flavors mixed with fruits. just a lot of excitement. barely feels like chocolate. a very intense exploration of extra-fragrant cocoa. makes u feel the "tropical" nature of the cacao plant. 9
summary - spice, fruit, excitement, sweet, acid
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pralus - tanzanie
look - a deep brown with slight purplish tinting. fair amount of bubbling
smell - faint fruit, light woody (cedar) smell, relatively faint (compared to others in this tasting), dry leaves, slight cocoa, mushroom? 8 (fairly faint, nothing that clean and exciting)
taste - donut, dried red fruit, very interesting tea smell, cocoa, tainted by astringency, plantiness, burnt leaves, more donut, choco, roast. dry finish. 8 (it's a shame that the astringency comes at the end since it skews my perception of it as a whole)
balance - decent. slight acid, sugar is felt but doesn't feel rounded, base is disconnected and astringent 7.5
texture - slightly grainy. 8

interpretation - sort of a 'drab' chocolate. shows some interesting character, but doesn't have life. like it's not really that "into it". lower the astringency (most impt) and step up the brightness or boldness of one of the flavor components, and it would be a very exciting chocolate (like the others) 8
summary - faint, asringent, slight fruit, tea, cedar
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a very lively tasting. the tanzanie at the end kinda threw cold water on the whole thing, but it was good because it helped put the excitement brought by the other 3 into perspective. they each bring their own excitement in very different ways. the pralus (ven) via texture and very powerful yet controlled roast, the amano with its wild-plant and tobacco smells, the cluizel with its spice and fruit and roast and acid. what an incredibly diverse world chocolate is...