Salazon 72% Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt

About: This chocolate appears to be manufactured in Maryland and claims to be the first salted chocolate. A homey tale on their website recounts a 2009 campi-dition where the chocolatey hand of God reached down and showed the salted path. Really? There were not salted bars before 2009? I can't be bothered to verify or debunk, so bunk away!

They start with beans. They seem to care about the beans. And they make 57% and 72% bars with various flavorings exclusively (for now), so those are all positive marks for them.

Flavor:  Good balance of salty crunchiness with a somewhat bland chocolate experience that has some residual bitterness. The almonds come on strong after the chocolate is long gone, so you're left with a very non-chocolatey aftertaste. And the chocolate itself is a bit disappointing.

Texture:Generally fine, with a nice job on the salt. The almonds leave a bit of a pastey whats-it in your mouth, so you have to like an almond paste to like this a lot.

My rating:  Unfortunately, this particular bar didn't come off as anything special, but 6 for the nicely done salting.

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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