Ghirardelli 72% Cacao Intense Dark

About: Ghirardelli is a San Francisco chocolate maker with a broad line of chocolate products ranging from baking and drinking to bars and filled chocolates. They have strong distribution in the US and can be found in many places. In general, I find their chocolate to be bitter and over roasted, but this bar was actually surprisingly fine.

Flavor: The vanilla comes through a bit strongly, but the chocolate is earthy and not - as I expected - burned and bitter. (By the way, the reason I expected a B and B experience is because I've had numerous B and B experiences with G chocolates. Lots.) 

In this bar, notes of raisin, nice follow-through. Really pretty good +1.

Texture: Fine. Initially a bit brittle but with a smooth follow-through with a tiny weeny bit of very fine grain grit.

My rating:  Pleasant. Solid 7 for flavor, but not that exciting on the texture. Almost a 6, but my rants about B and B guilted me into a 7. 

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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