** This is just a straight up review. I promise to give more details and a more in depth write about Willie's with the next review.
“Sourced near Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia, this single bean cacao has been carefully roasted in our factory in Devon using traditional methods to capture the bean’s light caramel notes. Its characteristics change with each harvest – like fine wine.”
Javan Light Breaking
Type: Bittersweet, 69%
Bean Varietal: Unknown, but probably Trinitario.
Ingredients: Cocoa solids (69% minimum), cocoa mass, cocoa butter, Cuban raw cane sugar.
Sample Size: 80g or 2.82oz
Batch #: 3-0002
Appearance: Square tablet, monogrammed, light in color, soft brown, a bit banged up, with nicks on the edges that left chocolate particles all over the surface.
Score: 87
Snap: Excellent snap, firm and crisp. Unlined molding gives way to asymmetrical break lines.
Score: 94
Aroma: Roasted peanuts, sweet caramel, deep coffee notes, a little green leaf aroma, slight floral hints, and mild notes of tar and tobacco.
Score: 95
Taste: Sweet sugars up front, nutty, and caramel, then very quickly opens up a little green and woody, acidic and tart, lightly bitter like a medium body cup of coffee, roasted cocoa, tar, mildly fruity with hints of strawberries.
Score: 92
Texture: Smooth surface but a little rough on the tongue and lightly grainy, a bit chewy, medium melt time.
Score: 90
The aroma was simply amazing on this chocolate. Deeply rich and roasted cocoa notes with big roasted peanuts and a wonderful creamy caramel aroma.
The taste I feel like didn't match the quality of the aroma. While it was good tasting cocoa, it reminded me more of coffee than chocolate with the acidity and bitterness. It wasn't sharp acidity, but like I mentioned above, more like the kind of bitterness from a medium roasted cup of coffee. The bitterness lingers on the palate like a cup of coffee as well making it difficult for retro-olfaction flavors to come through.
I really wanted to taste big roasted peanuts on this bar as indicated in the nose. It had a nutty flavor but I feel like it didn't match the nose. I wanted the same thing for the caramel aroma. I wanted this chocolate to be buttery and sweet like the caramel aroma. It was flavorful and rich, but over powered by the lingering acidity.
Having said everything I wanted to see happen with this chocolate, it doesn't mean it wasn't good chocolate. It had interesting flavor spikes. Green leafy flavors, freshly cut wood, slight hints of strawberries, earthy charred flavors or tar. It bounces all over the place up front with these flavors but then they are overtaken with acidity.
The texture wasn't as smooth as I had hoped for, but with old school techniques, it's fairly smooth. It has an interesting chewy texture as well coupled with a medium melt time.
Final Score: 91.6
B+
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