For some reason, this chocolate, associated with Yumbos, is named after the co-founder and co-owner of the brand, Molinari. He probably wanted to make his signature chocolate.
Like the other Yumbos, it is a chocolate with a brittle texture. It breaks into several pieces under the tooth, and only then it melts slowly.
This chocolate has a particular taste, very fruity, a little acidulous, which takes a lot of space. One guesses behind the usual notes of butter, and, far away, of wood. There is no bitterness at all. It’s quite light, a bit airy - if it were music, it would be mostly high-pitched, and would lack bass. The taste doesn’t stay in the mouth for long.
In short, a good chocolate, which demonstrates by its flavor and texture the variety accessible with aroma fino cocoa. To be tried, as it deserves its place on the map.
Vinces is the capital of the province of Los Rios. Known as “Little Paris”, in the 19th century it was the center of a golden age of cocoa. Its farms were among the most important in the world and its elite traveled to Europe, and France in particular, bringing back luxury tastes and objects.
It is in honor of this history that Republica del Cacao makes this chocolate in collaboration with the community of Vinces.
It is a chocolate with character, strong in the mouth, very dark, but without a touch of bitterness. In its slightly malty depth, we find touches of honey, hazelnut and pecan. In terms of consistency, it melts quickly and smoothly, leaving time to explore all its nuances.
This chocolate is tasty and robust. It starts with a tea flavor, with small round notes. Quickly, touches of black pepper follow, then hazelnut. At the end, it leaves a very small bitterness. A fine and very pleasant chocolate, although a little short in mouth.
It is a woody chocolate, with a rather subtle taste behind a pronounced bitterness. You can feel that the cocoa has been roasted, without it reducing the flavor. Images come to me of a stretch of gray road, at the border of the cloud forest and the coast, where the humid smells await us just a little further down, and where a man is watching over some cocoa seeds roasting on the sun-warmed asphalt. It’s that kind of chocolate: it takes you on a journey, it reminds you of a particular detail, a detail more spectacular for what it tells than for what it is.
This is a slightly more interesting chocolate than the 40% milk. There is enough cocoa in it to detect the characteristic touches of Republica del Cacao. Despite this, the milk still erases the subtle notes that make the particular value of arriba cocoa. It is a pity, even if it is a very pleasant chocolate, and of good quality.