Mast Brothers Pecan and Maple
Share on: Facebook | Twitter | Google +1 | Stumbleupon
Pizza and beer are my two favourite things. I don’t like Hawaiian pizza and I don’t like gassy beer. By that token you should understand, amidst all the gushing remarks from Mast Brothers fan boys, I actually don’t like this Pecan & Maple Syrup bar.
Perhaps it’s because I was expecting something indulgent and guilt-ridden from the pecan and maple syrup based on cakes with the same ingredients I’ve had in the past? Perhaps I hoped for some sweet crunch against an underlying bitterness of the 74% house blend? But I hardly got any of the maple and an uneven splattering of pecans. There’s “craft chocolate” and “rushed chocolate”. Even though I couldn’t have expected them to be scientifically placed with protractors and lasers, but it would have been nice to have at least a fairly even distribution of the nuts.
Some dark chocolate can come across more ‘dry’ than ‘bitter’ and this is one of them. If there was more syrup then this could have balanced out the flavour tones more, but seeing as pecans don’t add any moistness or sweetness, that impairment was compounded. Perhaps I just “don’t get” this bar, perhaps everybody else will, but I just prefer their other bars which seem to over a more rounded experience.
As with the beer and pizza analogy – we can’t like everything every chocolate maker produces and I fully expect to enjoy the Belize 70% and the Stumptown coffee bars I have left to review. For this bar, I’d only give it a quick rating of 62%.
Lee McCoy