Fresco – 217 (Chuao 70%)

Overview

Our rating: 89.2% (1 review)
Your rating: (No reviews yet) Add a review
Company:
Bar description: George Gensler
Cacao solids: 70%
Guide Price: $10.00

Facts

Production: Produced directly from beans by maker
Certification:
- None
Certification:
- Cocoa Beans
- Cane Sugar
- Cocoa Butter

Maker's info

Exceptional chocolate is created through a series of events. Change any one event and the outcome is a new creation. We meticulously control these events, changing them purposefully to create new chocolate experiences. We make chocolate from cocoa beans, one batch at a time. Using natural ingredients, we slow roast each cocoa batch and stone grind our chocolate as in ages past. By adjusting ingredients, recipes and parameters throughout the chocolate making process we strive to discover unique chocolate flavors not commonly experienced. Then offer the results for your review.

Your scores

Aroma
Look/snap
Taste
Melt
Length
Opinion
Total

Review guide

Fresco makes small batches of dark chocolate, changing the formula between bars (the roast and conche levels are marked on the package).

Reviews

George Gensler: 9-Oct-2011

Posted: October 9, 2011 by George Gensler

SCORES	Score/10	Weight
Aroma:	7.5	10%
Look/snap:	9	5%
Taste:	9.5	35%
Melt:	7	5%
Length:	8	15%
Opinion:	9.5	30%
Total/100:	89.25	100%

Review guide

INFO
Best before:
Batch num:	11-021
Source:	Own purchase
Supplied by:

Rate this review

Rating: 10.0/10 (4 votes cast)

Before the taste: Fresco has done a beautiful job packaging this bar. The small box (40g) is in gradations from black to pale gray with silver, white and black lettering and the bar itself is wrapped in silver foil to match the lettering on the box. The information on the box includes the standard origin, weight, ingredients, etc., but goes further to include the preparation. This bar is recipe 217, with a dark roast and a medium conche. The bar itself is segmented in 3/4″ (2cm) lined squares. The bar is reddish brown, not particularly glossy, but nicely poured, very clean. It doesn’t smell much like chocolate, but there aren’t any unpleasant aromas, either.

Getting to the heart of it: The bar has a nice snap with an even break. The chocolate doesn’t quite melt away; it’s chunky, but not powdery, lingering on the tongue and teeth after the chocolate is gone. The heaviness of the roast is noticable, leaving a coffee-like taste in the mouth, though the bar itself doesn’t taste like coffee. The aftertaste is of a very dark mocha.

Overall: I really enjoyed this bar. I am not a coffee fan, but these beans were handled very well and the resulting chocolate is addictive. It’s all I can do not to eat the rest of this bar, which I am saving to compare with the medium roast Chuao.

About the Author

George Gensler

George Gensler is a copyrights specialist during the week and a runner on the weekends. She lives in New York City now, but has lived in five countries on three continents. She spent her early years traveling the world with her siblings and parents, who also instilled in her a love of - and appreciation for - travel and chocolate. She continues to take every opportunity for travel that comes her way, from visiting friends and family to destination races and chocolate hunts. She has eaten chocolate on all seven continents and is working her way around them again. George and a small group of like-minded friends formed the Manhattan Chocolate Society in 2007. The Manhattan Chocolate Society holds focused tastings, mostly of bean-to-bar chocolates, and has worked with several chocolate makers to refine their product.