**Archived notes
Art by Andreas H. Gratze.
Lobooko Duo Ecuador 70% and Nicaragua 80%. Dueling bars from different regions of Central and South America and slightly different cacao percentages.
The description for the Ecuador bar was only in German. So, with a little help from Google, I have a rough translation of the package descriptions.
Ecuador, das Kernland der Inkas, birgt noch heute große Schätze. Die Provinz El Oro- das Gold liegt im Südwesten des Landes an Pazifikküste und an der Grenze zu Peru. Hier kultivert die Kooperative Urocal den Cacao Nacional. Dieser landestypische Kakao verströmt schon beim Rösten einen unverwechselbaren Geruch und taucht unsere ganze Manufaktur in eine unglaubliche Schokoladenduftwolke ein.
Dunkle Schokolade mit 70% kakaobestandteil bietet für meine Begriffe den höchsten Schokoladengenuss. Das ist genau die richtige Menge Zucker für die feinen Kakaoaromen. Diese Süße beflügelt ohne dominant zu sein.
Beim Walzen wird der Zucker mit dem Kakao verbunden. Dieser wird ihr Aroma also, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes, aufgedrückt. Und zum Abschluss folgt die Meiserschaft der Schokoladenproduktion, das Conchieren.
Dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids offers the highest terms of my chocolate. This is exactly the right amount of sugar for the fine cocoa flavors. This sweetness inspires without being dominant.
When rolling the sugar is associated with the cocoa. This is their flavor, then, be suppressed in the truest sense of the word. And the conclusion follows Meiser the shaft of the chocolate production, the conching.
Ecuador 70%
Type: Bittersweet, 70%
Varietal: Nacional
Ingredients: Cocoa Mass, raw can sugar, cocoa butter, salt.
Sample Size: 35g
Appearance: Medium dark brown color, signature Labooko molding with wavy air dry patten on top. A bit of scuffed surface from rubbing. Either from the bars the way they are packaged and rubbing together or from storage or transport from London to Boston.
Score: 91
Snap: Medium-firm snap, light snapping sound, clean break lines.
Score: 90
Aroma: Soft roasted cacao, almonds, oak wood, fruits, sweet and candy-like. Almost reminds me of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum.
Score: 96
Taste: Sweet but deeply bitter, subdued flavors, lightly roasted cacao, oak wood, raisins, plums, very subtle hints of buttered toast and possibly some tiny hints of cinnamon, earthy, traces of black pepper. Smoky lingering aftertaste.
Score: 93
Texture: Chewy, with a medium melt time. Medium-soft texture with a slightly creamy melt.
Score: 91
This is all about the aroma. A strange candy-like aroma that smelled similar to Juicy Fruit gum. It was kind of crazy, I had to keep my nose on this thing just to be sure I was actually smelling Juicy Fruit on the aroma. It also had big oak wood on the aroma and almonds. To me the aroma was the best thing about this bar.
Although there were some hints of rich flavors in this bar, I felt like it was very subdued on the flavor overall. This seems to be a symptom of Nacional beans. A drying effect on the palate similar to the difference in rye's versus bourbons. Similar flavors, but one is more dry and less cloying. That would be the Nacional beans in this case. But for chocolate, the drying effect is not something I care for as much. It feel like it holds back the natural flavors being drawn out. I can't be sure if this is a real phenomenon, but it's something I have noticed more than once on Nacional beans from more than one chocolate maker.
Because of this perceived drying effect, the sugars are much more apparent as well as the bitterness from the cacao. No acidity or astringency, but a bitter "ear wax-like" taste was left covering my palate and making it hard to notice the flavors of the chocolate. This bitterness is natural in a lot of chocolates, but I don't think it would as noticeable in other bean varietals. Unless it's technique flaws, but I doubt that's the case here.
Good snap quality and only slight surface issues with the appearance. An interesting chewey quality to the texture with a medium melt time. Creamy texture and chewy at the same time like fudge or caramel once it gets opened up a bit on the palate.
I have a feeling that this is one of those bars that most people in general will like more than I personally do. I don't think it's bad chocolate at all, I just think Nacional beans are not my favorite. I have been saying that in other reviews, but I am a little more convinced after this bar. It's hard to write a review like this. It's personal preferences and I am trying to be as technical as I know how to be as far the review goes. And it's pretty good technically. But then trying to express my personal dislike for bars that could be holding back the true flavor potential. I need more time and understanding of Nacional beans, but now, the aroma was the best part of this bar.
Final Score: 92.2
B+
Nicaragua 80%
Type: Bittersweet, 80%
Bean Varietal: Unknown
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, salt.
Sample Size: 35g
Appearance: Deep ashy brown color, monogrammed with signature air-dried ripples on top, slightly damaged surface from rubbing and sugar bloom.
Score: 82
Snap: Nice firm and crispy snap. Clean break lines.
Score: 92
Aroma: Char, Pepto Bismol, menthol, medicinal, earthy, buried fruits and berries.
Score: 91
Taste: Deeply bitter, slightly astringent and tangy, sweet sugars, wood, buttered toast, char, bitter pen ink, deep berries, black pepper.
Score: 94
Texture: Slightly hard, medium-long melt time,
Score: 89
I didn't take too much out of the score for the rubbing appearance. I have had Labooko bars before that were just fine so I don't know if the rubbing happened from transport. I did take points off for bloom. One bloomed and the other didn't so I don't think it was due to improper storage. I generally make notes about that if I think me or my apartment was the culprit.
This is see-saw chocolate. Up and down up and down. It opens deeply bitter and it coats the whole palate, then the sugars come through and sort of wipe out the bitterness leaving tangy astringent notes. The bitterness brings out a charred flavor and a pen ink flavor, but the sugars let the berry flavors sand out. Stuck in the middle is a buttered toast flavor and wood flavor.
This was fairly bitter for me. Deep lingering bitterness on the finish too. It grabs a hold of the palate and refuses to let go. It's fairly cloying that way. The sugars help let some of the other natural flavors come out, but the bitterness and astringency come back and retake over the palate.
This is beer geek chocolate. Beer nerds who love sours and the funky flavors that they produce will like something like this. It's not as funky as Rio Carribe chocolate, but it's in that same vein of descriptors that may not sound very appealing, but really are if you like things funky and deeply complicated.
I scored it pretty high on it's taste because these flavors were complicated and very present or apparent. Even though it's not my favorite kind of chocolate or flavors, it's something that I can see the value of and see where people would find this appealing.
Final Score: 89.6
B
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