Three Months of Kekao, Part 2
Kekao is a craft chocolate monthly subscription box service, of which I purchased three months.
Month 2 (June, 2021)
Taza Mexican-Style Stone Ground Chocolate 70%
This one posed a bit of a logistical challenge. It's a thick disk with very thin score lines, and I couldn't break it apart with my hands. [Edit: Actually, turns out it was two thin disks. The trouble was they’d melted together.] Since I didn't have a knife, I ended up smashing it with the lid to my hotel room's ice bucket. Anyway. This one seems pretty different from the others, and I'm curious to find out about its texture. Smells quiet and peaceful. I'm imagining the woods at night. Just vaguely sweet at first. Course, even as it's just melting. Like sandstone. A lichen covered sandstone boulder in the forest at night. Hm, a little sourness as I chew it. The texture is unique. Extremely course, yet I find it satisfying. It's a little like a mint meltaway. It's almost like a game. No, a toy. This chocolate is a toy for my mouth. The texture is so salient that once I started chewing it I sort of lost track of its flavor. It feels like raw sugar... and ground up cacao beans... Anyway, I'm standing by a sandstone lichen boulder in the woods at night.
Markham & Fitz Chocolate Makers 70% Dark Chocolate
Aw damn, this one definitely melted. Guess we'll see what that does. I smell fruit and flowers. Lilac and apricots. Very smooth slow-melting surface, like plastic or wax. A little sharp. I'm having trouble tasting it, how strange. It's like it's not there, like my tongue is numb. It's just so light. I can't tell if it's me or a property of the chocolate. It's like a star you're only able to see out of the corner of your eye. A garden hidden behind a vine-covered white fence. What an odd experience. Soft quiet almost silent apricots and lilacs.
Ritual Chocolate Fleur de Sel Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt 70%
This one definitely melted too. Smells like salt and chocolate. First taste is salt. It's interesting how I can taste each individual grain of salt as it melts on my tongue. I could make a map of where the grains are on the surface that's in contact with my tongue. The chocolate is brown velvet that brushes soft one way and rough the other. I'm not feeling much unity between the salt and chocolate yet. I'm seeing a hibernating brown bear, big and fat with its winter coat. And then I'm also just getting salt. I can perhaps feel it as the bear's claws, or as prickles on its skin. I dunno, these things don't seem to have a lot do with each other. It's a split personality chocolate. An anthropomorphic Kiki shape, and a hibernating brown bear.
Amedei Tuscany Toscano Blond 63% with Peaches and Apricots
It's a shame this one's melted. I already know Amedei knows their shit. It definitely has bits of something in it. Peaches and apricots, I suppose, though they look like nuts. I think my nasal passages still have some salt. I think I may have become saturated with chocolate experience after the very first one, because these smell sensations also feel not just quiet, but also distant. There's chocolate, and it's thin and light like white lace. Another taste map on my tongue. This time sharp sour spots. Can I distinguish between the fruits? I'm not sure, because although there are differences, they could easily be about different regions of my tongue. Things are much sharper on the tip, usually. Anyway. It melts like playdough. There definitely is salt. The chocolate reminds me of the skins of almonds. I'm not recognizing the fruit as fruit. Sour florid smooth skipping stones on the cool river surface in the afternoon.
