I just tried the E. Guittard Quetzalcoatl. I went in with the expectation that it would be good, as I love all of their single origin bars. I hoped to detect the aromas and flavors which I am familiar with from their origin bars.
The bar is a reddish brown color of intermediate darkness. It is significantly lighter than a bar such as Lindt Excellence 70%. Does this color necessarily indicate that bulk beans are not the predominate component of this chocolate?
The bar smells like something which I associate with lower quality chocolate, but is not unpleasant. Several possible labels for this aroma passed through my mind, such as a dutched chocolate aroma, but ultimately I decided that the bar smelled similar to a bar of Hershey’s.
The bar did not taste as I expected. To me it tastes like a s’more: a combination of marshmallow, graham cracker, and Hershey’s chocolate. Although, as one would suspect it is more chocolaty and less sweet. I also note some very subtle flavors of tea, coffee, and perhaps strawberries. I detect no significant level of acidity in this bar. The flavor profile strikes me as somewhat flat.
Smelling the bar again, I think that smells as it tastes: like a s’more.
The bar is not at all bitter, and the texture is not below average, but ultimately this bar fails to please me. This may be simply due to my biases; I do not want a tasting experience as mundane as eating a s’more when I reach for a bar of fine chocolate. My only objective complaint, is that the bar seems somewhat flat, as I mentioned earlier.
I notice that this bar is priced lower than the origin bars. Is this an indication that Guittard intends for this to be a less premium chocolate? Does it likely use beans which are not among the beans featured in the origin line?
Search 
Print this Topic 
Topic RSS 
