Patrick Roger 64% Dark Chocolate From Mexico
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I loved the Patrick Roger Assorted Carré but when I sat down to review this 64% tablet from Mexico I just wasn’t in the right frame-of-mind. It just tasted bland and certainly didn’t live up to the flavours offered in the Carré. I’ve now let the bar settle for about 3 weeks or so am ready to give it another go. And I’m damn glad I did.
Just with that selection box, the packaging here is wonderfully sophisticated. There’s the same green, solid and textured box; but inside there’s no ‘tin’ foil, just the inside of the cardboard has a highly reflective surface. I’m not sure how I feel about that as I’d be concerned that air could get the chocolate and alter its characteristics. That being said, it’s still a lovely looking bar of chocolate.
This bar may be like chalk and cheese compared to the Chapon with Cuban cocoa and the Jean-Paul Hévin I’ve recently reviewed, but it’s not less relevant.
Again it had the most wonderful shine you could ever want in a dark chocolate bar. You could almost shave using it as a mirror. But this smoothness hid an absolutely robust, archetypal dark chocolate flavour. Of course, at 64% it’s not going to knock your socks off with bitterness, but it does actually manage to be considerably more bitter than the Bonnat Hacienda El Rosario. It isn’t bitterness without flavour, however. There are some very fine dark notes, almost reminiscent of Marmite but with a curious acidity. It sort of flashes its leg of an acid flavour, but pulls its leg back at the last moment and actually offers flowery, candyfloss notes.
If you let the chocolate melt slowly in your mouth, the texture is wonderfully smooth. At first I got a slight chalky characteristic, but this just seemed to be with the first block. I’m going to have to call this my ‘chameleon’ bar as it just keeps changing in both texture and flavour. Very strange.
It’s certainly one of the better bars of dark chocolate I’ve reviewed recently. But for some the lack of consistency may confuse. Also if you’re buying a 64% dark chocolate bar, you inherently expect it to be fairly sweet. Although there is some latent sweetness it certainly isn’t reminiscent of a mid-60′s bar.
The problem I have is that I’ve not written much. This can only be an indication that I didn’t feel all that enthused or compelled to do so. Not a good sign.
