Amano Dos Rios 70%
The second bar up for review in my trio of bars sent to me from Amano. Using Dominican Republic beans for this bar, though I am not entirely sure of the region the beans come from or the type of bean varietal used. More than likely they come from the Santa Domingo or San Cristobal regions of the Dominican Republic and are probably a hybrid of some sort. Maybe Trinitario or Forastero.
From Amano's press release:
As these beans were roasted, winnowed, ground, refined and conched, they rapidly lost their flavor. This required us to develop a whole number of techniques to make this chocolate. Even so, the flavors shifted wildly during processing, making it almost impossible to simply taste the chocolate to see how it is turning out! We really had to trust our instincts. It was only after several weeks after we made the chocolate that the flavor fully revealed itself.
Amano ~Dos Rios 70%
Bean Varietal: Unknown
Type: Bittersweet 70%
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, pure cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole vanilla beans.
Sample Size: 2oz or 56g
Appearance: Shiny bar, but more of that ashy and banged up look again. Simple monogrammed molding and a deep, rich brown color.
Score: 90
Snap: Extremely low thud instead of a crisp clean snap sound. Clean break lines.
Score: 83
Aroma: Unbelievable aroma! Big, bright floral notes of bergamot and lavender, a bit woody with classic soft roasted cocoa notes once it was first opened, slight hints of herbs and a bit minty and medicinal at first. Then the bergamot and floral aromas completely took over leaving a bit of a spicy character to the aroma.
Score: 100
Taste: Huge bergamot and lavender taste right up front with a little bit of black pepper, extremely sweet tasting for bittersweet cacao, very low acidity and bitterness, bold flower flavors, mild hints of wood and tangerines, lingering bergamot flavors.
Score: 98
Texture: Soft, very smooth texture, medium melt time.
Score: 96
Excellent, excellent, excellent chocolate! But sadly once again, lame technical marks take the score down a bit. The snap was pathetic and the appearance of the bar was less than stellar. But the taste and aroma were incredible. I have never given any bar reviewed to date a perfect score of 100. This one has it for the aroma.
The aroma is still lingering around my house and there were only 3 small squares sitting out for review. I have never smelled any chocolate that aromatic before, and the wonderful perfume-y, flowery taste of bergamot and lavender make this borderline flavored chocolate. It's unreal how flavorful this chocolate was.
Also from the press release:
Final Score: 93.4
A-
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