Bar: Esmeraldas 70%
Maker: The Roasting Masters (Seoul, South Korea)
Price: $7.50/35g (Direct From Maker)
Munch Factor: 3/10
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, soy lecithin (0.5%).
Appearance: first thing that catches your eye is the teal & pink squares that make up the bulk of the art deco-like packaging, then the shiny gold name, and finally the light-colored print (quite hard to read). The bar is well-tempered and thin with the logo in the center and small pre-broken squares surrounding it, ready to be snapped off.
Aroma: sweet, nutty cocoa, and I absolutely swear, coffee pulp. I smell the distinct woodiness of fresh coffee cherries.
Melt & Snap: okay melt & very strong snap.
Flavor: sugarless woodiness and then some cocoa and a bit of astringency that only intensifies. By the end of the bar, the sweetness is gone and only tannins remain in a less-than-pleasant finish. I’ve had better from them.
Complaints & Complements: the aluminum packaging inside is good for re-sealing, but I think it may affect the chocolate’s aroma. Additionally, on the back of the bar it says “this bar is honestly made from cacao & cane sugar only,” which is a lie they contradict below— in Korean. They list 0.5% lecithin in their ingredients list, so it’s misleading to have some of the only English on the outside of their bar to say that of all things. Otherwise, I’ve had better from this maker.
Context: in my cold office on a cool fall day.
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